Tale of a Jedi
by Joe Skywalker
Summary: A young Jedi survives order 66, and wants to get revenge on the Emperor, but during his adventures over the galaxy he must realise, fighting the Empire is harder than he thought.  I have nothing more to say but:  A long time ago in a galaxy far far away..
1. Order 66

The ship was hit again. It's deflector shields were still working on sixty percent and the damage was irrelevant. The Captain ordered to respond fire, and the cannons started to shoot. The countless laser shots were flitting between the Republic and the Separatist battleship.

They were fighting in the Outer Rim, and the Separatist battleship guarded a Separatist base on the planet below. But the Republic cruiser seemed to be much stronger than the Separatist one.

A squadron of Republic star-fighters left the hangar of the cruiser. The fighters were led by a Jedi star fighter. In the fighter was sitting Jedi Master Zaro Kun, a human from Corellia. He had a lot of experience in space battles, and he was one of the best pilots of the Jedi Order. He had taken part in many space battles, and had proved his skills many times before.

'Watch out for the fighters!' said someone from the Republic cruiser, who was in radio contact with the fighter pilots.

On the command bridge of the ship, was standing the apprentice of Zaro Kun, the Jedi Padawan, Odalon. He was born on Tanaab, and Zaro Kun had discovered his Jedi skills himself. Odalon was not a very talented Jedi. He had had medium results as a Youngling, and later he became the Padawan of Zaro Kun, who asked him to be his apprentice.

Odalon learned the ways of the force, and he managed to finish most of his missions with success, but he has never been on a mission on his own. He has been taught to use his lightsaber, but he never fought as good as the legendary Jedi like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Yoda or even Anakin Skywalker.

But at the command posts Odalon was always better than most of the others. He had a talent to make good decisions in narrow situations. His Master also realised, that Odalon had good strategic abilities, and he usually gave him tasks, in which he didn't have to fight, but make strategic decisions, and instruct the troops.

Some Separatist droid-controlled fighters were arriving from the Separatist battleship and immediately got behind the Republic ones.

'Break up!' ordered Zaro Kun, and the Republic fighters immediately followed his order.

Zaro Kun was an excellent pilot, especially when he had to dogfight. He gave accurate shots without using the targeting computer, because he used the force to hit the enemies, and it was faster and more effective.

'Don't let 'em hang on your tails!' shouted Zaro Kun.

In a dogfight like this, for the Republic pilots it was harder to win, or just survive, because the droid-controlled fighters could follow them better than the human-controlled ones. They simply didn't feel the pressure, because they were machines, so they could take narrower turns.

But this fact couldn't stop the Republic pilots from destroying as many Separatist fighters as they could. And while the fighters were dogfighting all around the battleships, Odalon saw, that the Separatist ship was losing it's deflector shields.

Then, suddenly Odalon felt something strange. Something, that he couldn't identify, and he thought, it was just a bad feeling. But, if you are a Jedi, bad feelings always have a significant reason, and just seconds after this thought, Odalon saw, that the communications officer received a message.

He raised his head, and noticed a holograph in front of the clone Commander, who was going to be leading the ground attack against the Separatist base on the planet below. He tried to listen carefully, because he wanted to hear the conversation. He closed his eyes, concentrated, and he heard a couple of words:

'… execute order sixty-six!...' said the holograph.

'Which one is order sixty-six?' Odalon asked from another clone trooper, who was standing next to him.

'I don't know. That's a secret order, which is only known by the high-ranked Commanders.' answered the trooper.

'I have a bad feeling about this.' groaned Odalon quietly. He stepped to his communicator to inform his Master, but suddenly the clone Commander set his own communicator off, and turned to Odalon.

The clone didn't wear his helmet, so Odalon could see his face, and the Commander's eyes were telling him, that "I'm sorry sir. An order is an order."

The Commander raised his gun, and pointed at Odalon. The Jedi reacted immediately. He got down, behind the control panel and drew out his lightsaber. The laser blast crashed the wall above the Jedi's head.

Odalon didn't know what to do. He wanted to survive so he raised the lightsaber, and cut down the clone's hand, who was standing next to him. The clone Commander shouted something, but Odalon didn't understand. He just jumped to the door and left the bridge as fast as he could.

A couple of shots impacted behind him. Then he turned around, closed the door, and crashed the controls with his lightsaber. After he deactivated the weapon, and started to run. He was heading to the hangar to steal a fighter and leave the cruiser, before all the clone troopers get the order.

Odalon wanted to warn his Master, but he needed some kind of communication system to contact him. Unfortunately it seemed, that the communicator, he can reach easiest, is in his Jedi star-fighter.

While he was running, he heard the Commander speaking, whose voice was coming from the loudspeakers. He instructed the clone troopers of the cruiser to kill Odalon, when they meet him. Then he heard that the Commander was telling the fighter pilots to kill Zaro Kun.

Odalon reactivated his lightsaber and he killed the two clone troopers, standing on the corridor in front of the elevators. The troopers didn't even had the time to draw their guns after they heard the Commander's words.

The Jedi got into the elevator, and pushed the button which indicated the hangar's level. He kept his lightsaber active in his hands, and tried to calm down. He felt, he's heart beats much faster, than it used to.

'They will be waiting for me in the hangar.' Odalon thought. As he looked at the elevator's computer screen, he saw, that the hangar was now only two levels below him. He immediately pushed the button above the hangar's one, and the elevator stopped on that level.

Odalon jumped out of the elevator to the corridor, and headed to the staircase. He didn't met any clone troopers on his way to the hangar's door. As he opened the door by using the force, he saw four clone troopers, pointing their guns at the elevator.

Odalon stepped into the hangar, and hid behind a clone fighter. He could see about seven clones in the hangar. They were more than he could easily defeat, but if he could lure three or four of them out of the hangar, he could escape with one of the ships.

He was waiting for a few seconds and then he heard a trooper swearing. He looked at the troopers, and he saw, that three of them are standing in the door of the elevator. The Jedi thought that he could make them get into the elevator with a force push, and send them to one of the upper levels. If he has a bit of luck, they won't realize what happened before they get too far to stop the elevator and come back to kill the Jedi in time.

He concentrated for a moment to gather his force power, then he pointed at the troopers, who fell into the elevator. Odalon used the force again, to push one of the elevator's buttons, and he looked at the closing elevator door satisfied.

In the next second he was almost shot by another clone trooper. He activated his lightsaber and got back to his shelter. Some other laser shots flitted next to him, and damaged the wall of the hangar.

Odalon estimated that three other clones were standing about ten meters further, and one more was standing at the elevator. He gathered his force power again and pulled the gun of a trooper. The blaster stopped in the air, just before it reached his hand. The Jedi caught it, and shot three or four times in the direction of the clones.

He heard that the troopers got into shelter, and he immediately climbed on the Republic fighter, next to him. The cockpit was open. Odalon shot some other laser blasts at the clone troopers while he sat into the fighter.

As soon as the clone troopers tried to shoot him again, the fighter's engines were already roaring. The Jedi closed the cockpit, and the ship slowly raised from the hangar's floor.

The magnetic force field which guarded the hangar was turned off by a well-timed force action of Odalon, and the Jedi flew out of the Republic cruiser's hangar, while the clone troopers were shooting at him.

'Master! Can you hear me?' shouted Odalon. As he looked out through the windscreen of the fighter, he saw dozens of ships, dogfighting in the space. The Separatist battleship was now completely trashed by the countless laser shots and rockets, and most of the Separatist star fighters had already been destroyed too.

'What's happening?' asked someone. The voice came from Odalon's fighter's communication system. The young Jedi immediately recognised the sound.

'Master! The clone troopers turned on me! They're trying to kill us!' said Odalon.

'I know. They're shooting at me. And they don't listen to my orders.' replied Zaro Kun.

'What should we do now?' asked Odalon.

'Head to the planet! Try to land!' ordered Zaro Kun.

Odalon turned his ship to the planet. He didn't really want to join the dogfight, because he knew, he's not as good as the clone pilots. But the radar screen of his fighter indicated two small spaceships following him, and the distance between the Jedi and the clones was decreasing with every second.

Odalon knew, they can't escape from the clones. The star-fighters didn't have hyperdrive engine, so they could only land on the planet and hide. But the clones had technology, which was good enough to find them anywhere. They could survive for only a couple of days or maybe one or two weeks before they will be spotted.

'They're on your tale.' said the Jedi Master to his young apprentice.

He was right. Odalon's fighter was now in the range of two clone pilots. The Jedi didn't have time to manoeuvre. The clone fighters started to shoot laser bolts at his fighter and the first salvo crashed the weak deflector shield of the fighter and damaged the stabilizers and the cannons.

'Evade!' shouted Zaro Kun.

Odalon pulled the rod control to get out of the clones' range, but the two pilots couldn't have been shaken off so easy.

'I'm right there! Just hang on for a few seconds!' shouted the Jedi Master.

The clone pilots were trying to finish the Jedi off, but Odalon managed to evade them. The success didn't take long. The clones got on Odalon's tail again.

But before they could shoot another salvo at Odalon, some laser bolts flitted between them. The clone fighters were confused for a second, but than they realised what happened and they knew what to do.

The two clones broke up. One was still following Odalon, but one turned to another direction. Zaro Kun decided to follow the one on Odalon's tail. This time he used the computer to target the clone fighter, because he didn't want to miss the target. As the computer indicated the target, he pulled the trigger, and the bright laser bolts tore the clone pilot's ship apart.

At the same time the other clone started to shoot at the Jedi Master's fighter. Zaro Kun didn't have time to evade. His Jedi star fighter blew up in the space, and the millions of small chips of metal were flying all over the explosion in every direction.

Meanwhile on Corouscant...

Darth Vader, the young Sith knight stepped into the Jedi Tample. Behind him was marching the 501-st. legion. Hundreds of clone troopers invaded the Temple, and the whole battle took less than one hour.

Vader drew his lightsaber and killed the first Jedi who got in his way. The young Jedi, who was now laying on the floor next to Vader's boots, was just about to ask "Master Skywalker" about the newest events of the war.

'Leave no one alive!' shouted Vader.

Jedi knights turned up on the corridors of the Temple, and most of them died before they could draw their lightsaber. These clone troopers were the most precise in the galaxy. They were fast and accurate, and they followed their orders merciless.

Vader stepped into the elevator and left the fighting clones and Jedi in the main hall of the Temple. He had to take care of the hiding Jedi Younglings, before they could only try to escape. However, the escape from the Jedi Temple was almost impossible, because of the clone fighters and troops, waiting outside the temple.

The door of the elevator opened and Vader stepped into the Jedi Council Chamber at the top of the Temple.

Some Jedi Younglings were hiding in the chamber. It seemed, that no one stayed here to guard them. One of the Younglings stepped to Vader and asked for help.

Darth Vader, the evil Sith knight looked at the young boy. He thought, that this boy will become one of the narrow-minded Jedi when he will grow up. This boy will become one of those, who fooled and betrayed him. This boy is one of them, who keeps him back from saving his wife from the certain death. He activated his lightsaber.

'No!' shouted someone from the elevator, but he was too late. Vader killed every single Youngling in the Council Chamber, and now the unarmed, dead bodies were laying on the floor all around the Sith knight.

Khal Seda, a Jedi knight stepped into the chamber. He was a tall, strong man from Chandrila. He became Jedi knight by completing his probe three years earlier, just after the Clone Wars started. He was holding his lightsaber in his hand, ready for a battle even against a powerful Sith knight.

'What are you doing Skywalker?' he cried looking at the dead Younglings. 'You killed them! You betrayed the Jedi! You turned on us! What do you think? They were just children.'

'I'm not wasting words on a Jedi!' said Vader.

'I can't let you do this.' said Khal Seda.

'Then try to stop me!' Vader raised his lightsaber and pointed on the Jedi. Khal Seda raised his weapon too, and waited for Vader's attack. The Sith moved forward and slashed but Seda countered the attack.

The rustling lightsabers made strange lightning-looking phenomenons in the highest room of the Jedi Temple when they hit each other. The Jedi and the Sith were fighting fearlessly, and during the battle they crashed the windows of the Council Chamber.

Suddenly Khal Seda stepped backwards, and lowered his lightsaber. He raised his empty hand and used a force push to knock Vader to the wall. The Sith groaned, but he answered with another force push. The Jedi expected the attack and he deflected it easily.

Vader realised, he need more powerful moves to defeat Khal Seda. He pointed on the Jedi with his mechanical hand and concentrated all his hate into one force strike. The bright force-lightning lashed out of his metal fingers.

The Jedi couldn't defend himself from the lightning, and he fell to his knees. The lightsaber slipped out of his hand and fell to the floor. But as he raised his head and looked at Vader, he saw, that the Sith was also kneeling. Vader's lightsaber was still in his hand but deactivated. And Darth Vader's mechanical arm was smoking and sparkling.

'What is that?' asked Vader staring at his hand which he couldn't move now. 'What's happening?'

Khal Seda saw fear on Vader's face. The Sith knight slowly realised what happened. His force-lightning damaged also his mechanical arm, causing a shortstop.

Seda pulled his lightsaber back into his hand by using the force, and he attacked Vader. The Sith knight was fast enough to counter his attack, even with his left hand.

As Vader pushed his lightsaber away, Seda saw pain and anger in the Sith's eyes. He saw, Vader's up to something, but he wasn't fast enough. Darth Vader's mechanical hand crashed into Seda's face, and the Jedi felt the blood flowing from his face.

Seda barely dodged Vader's next slash, and he fell to the floor. He knew, he lost the duel, but he was not dead already. Maybe he could escape somehow.

Vader stroke on him. Seda tried to deflect the attack with his lightsaber, but the Sith managed to cut his side. Seda yelled because of the pain. He could only kick Vader's leg to hold the Sith back for some seconds.

Seda looked at his side, and saw the scar on his body. It was not a really serious injury. If he hadn't have to fight with the injury and he got to a doctor in a few hours, he would be surely heal in a week.

'Get to a doctor...' Seda thought.

He knew a doctor, living on Corouscant, who was a good friend of him. If he could escape somehow maybe he could ask for help from him.

Seda gathered his power and used the force to get to the broken window. Vader was behind him with his lightsaber and he was ready to kill the Jedi. Seda stepped through the window and jumped, before Vader could cut him.

Clone star-fighters were flying all around the Jedi Temple, and Seda used the force to land on one of them. He felt, he broke his leg, but he didn't care about it. He only wanted to get in the ship and fly away.

The clone pilot tried to keep the ship flying straight, but suddenly the cockpit opened. Seda tore the booby-hatch off with the force. The clone pilot reached for his laser pistol, but the Jedi caught his head.

Seda accidentally pulled the helmet off from the pilot as he tried to break his neck. He hit the pilot's head with the helmet, but the clone caught his hand. He raised the pistol and tried to shoot the Jedi.

Seda cried out in pain. His hand was bleeding and two fingers had been torn by the blaster shot. He snapped to the pistol with his other hand. The clone and the Jedi were fighting for the weapon, and they completely forgot about the ship.

The fighter was getting lower and lower, and suddenly crashed into the ground.

A few minutes later a group of clone troopers found the remainders of the ship. It was completely ruined. They found a dead clone pilot in the broken cockpit, but no one else was around the vessel.


	2. A narrow escape

Odalon reached the coast and climbed out of the water. He had fallen into a lake when he had tried to land on the planet. The clones hadn't followed him through the atmosphere, but Odalon was sure, that they won't let him go.

He was laying on the coast in his wet Jedi robes, and the only vessel he could have used to change places was now at the bottom of the lake. He looked at the light blue sky. The sun just came up on the horizon, and started to heat the planet's surface. Only some small clouds were on the sky, but between these clouds Odalon could see a small metallic object, high above the planet. It was the Republic battle cruiser.

The battle over the planet has been ended. The Separatist battle ship and the fighters has been destroyed. Now the small Separatist base was standing defenceless on the planet, and it will take a few hours or less for the clones to attack and destroy it.

'Maybe they have a ship.' thought Odalon. 'If I can reach the Separatist base before the Republic forces, maybe I can make a deal with them, and escape from this planet before the clones find and kill me, like my Master.'

Tears appeared in Odalon's eyes. He remembered the space battle, the clone fighters, the laser shots and the explosion of Zaro Kun's Jedi star-fighter. He couldn't believe that his Master was gone. He lost the person who taught him everything. He took care of him, and kept him safe even during the Clone Wars.

Odalon finally shook his head and stood up. He tried to send these thoughts away. He knew, he had to concentrate on his next move. He had to be faster than ever. First of all he had to locate himself on the planet.

As he remembered, the Separatist base was almost directly below the Separatist battleship. That means he couldn't be further from the base than ten or twenty miles.

Before the battle had started, he had learned a few things about the planet. It was mostly covered with chalk rocks and grassy meadows. The small amount of water on the surface caused less cloud activity in the air than on other planets, and it was almost impossible to find a foggy spot on this planet.

By the way, the planet was called Gymelo.

Odalon also knew, that the planet was uninhabited, because of the very small amount of animals and planets on it's surface. It was impossible to build and run a city on the planet, because the food support would depend on trade and merchants.

But the planet was proper for a smaller power plant which could store and send energy to other planets, because of the heavy geothermal activity under the surface. That was the reason, why the Separatists built their base on Gymelo.

Odalon climbed up to the nearest hill. He was hoping, that he could notice the Separatist base from there. Unfortunately he didn't see it, but from the hilltop he saw, that the clones had sent their first group to the planet. A small Republic transport was lowering in the atmosphere.

Odalon felt hopeless. He was late. If the clones attack the base, he could never get there without being spotted, and he could never leave this planet alive.

But the transport didn't turn to the Separatist base. It landed on a hilltop, close to Odalon. First the Jedi couldn't believe his eyes, but then he realised, that the clones are hunting for him. So he still had the chance of escape.

That thought gave power to Odalon. He took a deep breath, and concentrated his force power to find the Separatist base. He felt it's location, seven miles to the north-west. He didn't waste more time, and he started to descend into the valley next to the rocky hill.

It wasn't easy to navigate through the rocky hills and valleys of Gymelo, and Odalon became more and more annoyed with every passed minute. It took four hours for him, to get to the Separatist base, but he could hope, that the clones lost his tracks.

But as he was standing there, in the valley, under the gigantic construction, which was as big as a Republic star cruiser, he felt relieved.

He started to climb, and he reached the base in a few minutes. As he followed the hard, metal wall, he noticed a small door, leading into the rock. It must have been the back door of the facility.

Odalon stepped to the door, and tried to open it. The door didn't move, so the Jedi turned on his lightsaber, and cut a big, melting hole into it.

As he stepped through the door, and he found himself on a dark corridor. There was a staircase at the end of the corridor, and an elevator, next to the stairs. Odalon walked to the elevator, but as it's door opened, a group of B-1 droid soldiers turned up on the corridor.

'Raise your hands!' ordered the droid, pointing his blaster at Odalon.

The droids encircled the Jedi in a few seconds.

'Take his weapon!' commanded the droid leader.

Odalon felt, that a mechanical arm removed his lightsaber from his belt.

'Follow me'! ordered the droid leader, and stepped into the elevator.

Four other droids get in with Odalon, but the one, holding his lightsaber, left on the corridor with the rest of the mechanical team.

The elevator took them up to the highest level. When the door opened, Odalon saw a fully-furnished, comfortable room, with a couple of computer screens on the walls. There were three doors, leading out of the room, and every door was guarded by a pair of battle droids.

In the middle, on a comfortable sofa, a four-handed creature was sitting. He raised his head, and looked at Odalon, with his dark green eyes. His skin colour was the mixture of light blue and grey. He wore a clear, white coat, with many merits. He didn't wear boots, because his feet were far bigger than they could easily be covered with any kind of shoes, and he had long crows on his toes.

'Welcome to my home, Jedi!' he said theatrically.

'Who are you?' asked Odalon.

'My name is Ci Moss. I'm the General of the army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.' the creature replied.

'What are you doing here?'

'I was just about to welcome you in my throne room.' said Ci Moss.

'It's nice. But the Republic army can be here at any time.' Odalon informed the Separatist General.

'I know.' nodded Ci Moss. 'But I still don't know your name, and the reason, why you broke into my base.'

'I'm Odalon. A Jedi knight.' replied Odalon.

'You must be from Tanaab.' Ci Moss said.

'That's right.' Odalon answered. He was surprised by the Separatist General's knowledge. He always thought, that Separatists are just aggressive, brainless nerf-herders.

'You still didn't tell me the reason of your presence.'

Odalon thought, he could speak straight with this General.

'I need your help.' he said. 'My clone troops turned on me, and killed my Master. Something weird had happened in the Republic, and I want to know what is it!'

'So, you ask me to take you with me on my ship.' said Ci Moss.

'Right.' nodded Odalon.

'And in exchange for my help, what can you offer?' asked the General.

'I will tell the Jedi High Coucil, that you helped me, and I will ask them to acquit you.' said the Jedi.

'Give your word to me!' said Ci Moss severely.

Odalon was thinking for a moment. He didn't really want to help a Separatist General. But on the other hand, he found Ci Moss likeable. He was polite and clever.

'Right. I give my word.' said Odalon finally.

He just finished the sentence, when the communicator on the table gave a loud, beeping voice. Ci Moss stepped to the communicator, and pushed some buttons. One of the computer screens on the wall flashed, and a face turned up on it.

The face was similar to Ci Moss' face. The creature had green eyes, even darker than Ci Moss, and pale, blue and grey skin. He also had smaller nubs on his head, not like Ci Moss.

'Republic troops got into the base. They came through the back door.' he sputtered.

'Get to the Crow, Hector, and get it ready for the take off!' ordered Ci Moss. 'I'll be right there in a minute.'

'Yes, General!' said the other, called Hector, and the transmission broke.

Ci Moss turned to another computer, and he set a few thing on the touch-screen. Suddenly the elevator's lights went out, and it became useless for the clones, who were already in the building.

'Take this!' said Ci Moss, and he threw a small laser blaster to Odalon. The Jedi caught it, and put it in his belt.

'We should move.' Odalon said, because he saw more and more transport ships and fighters on the radar screen.

'I set the self destruction to five minutes.' said Ci Moss. 'Follow me!'

The Separatist General raised a blaster, similar to the one, which he gave to Odalon, with one hand. With another hand, he shut down most of the computers and with a third one, he opened a door, leading outside the room.

Odalon followed Ci Moss through the door, and he found himself on a bridge. The bridge was leading to a smaller tower of the building. When he looked down, he saw they were twenty meters high above the ground.

As they were crossing the bridge, the whole building suddenly shook. Ci Moss was holding on to the barrier, and kept his balance, but Odalon almost fell from the bridge.

'What was that?' shouted Odalon in horror.

'We are under attack.' said Ci Moss. 'The droids can hold the clones back for a few minutes, so we can reach the Crow.

'What's this crow?' asked Odalon.

'It is my spaceship, the Black Crow.' said Ci Moss, and he looked very proud of his ship.

They continued their way across the bridge, then they descended a few levels on the staircase of the tower. Odalon just left the stairs, when the building shook again. This time they heard, that one of the smaller side-buildings has been destroyed.

'Hurry up!' said Ci Moss. 'We are almost there.'

Finally, after a few other shakes, they reached the hangar. The Black Crow was standing in the middle of the hangar. It's engines were already on. The whole cover of the ship was black, even the windows of the cockpit. Only the engines were burning with blue light in the dark.

Ci Moss immediately headed for the open ramp. Odalon followed him, and entered the ship.

The Black Crow had six rooms on the deck. There was a main room, where the ramp led. Here were a couple of seats, and place for smaller cargo. The cockpit was the most important part of the ship. For the perfect control, it was needed to be a pilot, a co-pilot and a gunner on board, every three of them in the cockpit. One person could also drive the ship alone, but it was harder for him to control the vessel. There was also a room, where the crew could pass some nights. The ship also needed a bathroom. The bathroom wasn't really similar to a simple bathroom, but it has the same function. Then, it had a technical room, where the crew could modify the ship's main systems and repair the broken parts. This room was attached to the ship's most important systems phisically. And finally, like most of the ships, the Black Crow had an escape pod.

'Who's this guy?' Hector asked pointing at Odalon.

'His name is Odalon. He is a Jedi.' Ci Moss replied.

'What?' Hector cried out.

'Never mind! I'll tell you later. Now, let's get out of here!' Ci Moss said, and he entered the cockpit. Hector followed him, and sat in the pilot's seat. The General sat next to him, in the seat of the co-pilot.

The two Separatists were much faster in controlling a ship, than humans. They had four arms, and their brain didn't work the same way as humans', so they could do three or four things simultaneously.

The Black Crow left the hangar. The ramp closed behind Odalon, as the Jedi stepped into the cockpit. They were flying faster and faster, in the direction of the sky.

'They spotted us.' said Ci Moss, looking at his computer. 'I turn the rear shields on.'

A few seconds later the Black Crow shook. Some laser shots flew away, close to the ship, and some others hit the rear deflector shields.

'Look! They're too much!' shouted Odalon, pointing at the radar screen, where he saw more than a dozen of red, flashing lights, indicating Republic star fighters.

'Don't worry! We'll shake 'em!' said Hector. 'More power to the engines!'

They accelerated but Republic ships were still following them. They were shooting hundreds of laser shots at the Black Crow, but only a few of them hit the ship, and the deflector shields absorbed the shots easily.

'They're so imprecise.' Odalon noticed. He thought, that the clone pilots were shooting more accurate shots a few hours earlier, in the space battle.

'Their computer can't target the Crow.' said Ci Moss. 'The Crow has a special shape, which refracts the airwaves. Their targeting system can't locate us really well.'

Suddenly a great explosion shook the ship, and Hector barely managed to get it back on course again. Ci Moss looked at the radar screen, and he saw, that Republic gunships joined the fighters. These gunships had more than twenty missiles, so they could try to shoot the Crow a couple of times, even without the targeting system. And the ship's deflector shields were not as powerful to keep up for long against these gunships.

'I'll shoot 'em!' shouted Hector, but Ci Moss pushed him back to his seat.

'Concentrate on piloting the ship! I will take care of the gunships.' he said. 'Odalon, take my place!'

Ci Moss stood up, and sat in the gunner's seat. He set some switches on the gunner's computer to charge the main cannon. Odalon sat in the co-pilot's seat, but he didn't know what to do.

'Turn on the hyperdrive! Set the coordinates of Bakura!' ordered Hector.

'What's that?' asked Oalon.

'Get outta there!' groaned Hector, and he activated the ship's automatic pilot.

Odalon stood up, and stepped to the cockpit's wall. He didn't want to get in the Separatists' way. Hector turned to the co-pilot's computer, and he turned the hyperdrive on, and started to charge it's energy. Odalon just noticed, that they are leaving the planet's atmosphere, and outside the ship's window he could see the stars in the space instead of the blue sky.

The Black Crow shook again. Another missile hit the ship, and it almost broke through the deflector shields. But the Crow's main cannon has been charged. Ci Moss turned on the targeting system, and he set maximum fire-power to the cannon.

The laser bolt shot through the space, straight to a Republic gunship. It was much brighter that lightning, and it caused much more damage to the object, it hit. The gunship blew up immediately. It had no chance to evade the shot, because of the perfect targeting system of the Black Crow. From this small distance, the Crow could hit anything with it's main cannon, bigger than a speeder bike.

'I'm charging the hyperdrive.' said Hector, as he sat back into the pilot's seat and turned the automatic pilot off.

Ci Moss reloaded the cannon, and targeted the next Republic gunship. The next shot blew up the gunship, just like the previous one. The Republic fighters and the one remaining gunship now lagged behind. They didn't want to be destroyed.

The Black Crow's deflector shields were seriously damaged, and they needed a huge amount of power to be repaired, but they couldn't let it now, to waste energy on repairing the shields.

'Watch out!' shouted Odalon, pointing at the radar screen.

Hector looked there, and he saw the huge, flashing red light, getting closer and closer to the Black Crow. It was the Republic cruiser.

'They're in range in a few seconds!' cried Hector. He pulled the rod control to turn the ship to another direction. He didn't want to let the cruiser to start shooting at them.

'It is too fast.' said Ci Moss. 'We need more power on the rare shields.'

He sat back into the co-pilot's seat, and started to recharge the deflector shields.

'The hyperdrive's almost ready for the jump.' said Hector.

The cruiser started to shoot. Dozens of laser shots flew at the direction of the Black Crow, and the small ship couldn't evade every shots. The cruiser couldn't target them perfectly, like the fighters, but it has much more cannons, and it has much more laser power.

'We've lost the shields!' Hector cried.

The Black Crow shook again, harder than ever, as the deflector shields destroyed.

'The hyperdrive is ready.' said Ci Moss.

'Punch it!' shouted Hector, and he hit the hyperdrive switch on the control panel.

The Black Crow's hyperdrive engine gave a bright light phenomenon as it has been activated, then the whole ship disappeared into the hyperspace.

Meanwhile on Corouscant...

Doctor Rand Wogel was walking up the stairs in the house. He was not a human, but a Biquirin. He had pale, green skin, and two soft horns were hanging under his jaw. He had big, black eyes, and no hair, or any kind of fur on his body.

He took his key-card out of his pocket, and opened the door of his flat with it. He was living in a flat, in a bit poor quarter of Corouscant. As a doctor, he got a good salary, but now-days he had to work the late hours, and he couldn't relax as much as he needed. Because of the war, there was much more injured people, than normally, and he was not bad in his job, so he was expected to work hard.

He finally arrived home after a very long day. But as he stepped into his flat, he noticed a puddle of blood on the carpet. He immediately lit the lamp, and draw his small electric shocker, which he always kept with him.

'Who's there?' he groaned.

'Help...' someone said in the living room.

'Who are you?' asked Wogel, as he stepped into the living room. He saw a brown, bloody robe on the floor, and an injured body on the sofa.

'I'm Khal, Rand.' said the laying person. 'You must help me!'

Wogel put his shocker down, and he looked at his uninvited guest. He was the Jedi knight, Khal Seda. He was in really bad condition.

'Hold on!' said Wogel. 'What happened to you?'

'Clones attacked the Temple... my side, and fingers, and leg...' mumbled the Jedi.

'I call the hospital at once.' said Wogel.

'No!' yelled Khal Seda. 'Tell no one I'm here! Promise...'

Wogel nodded, than he put his instruments on the table of the living room, and started to examine Khal Seda. He had dangerous injuries, but a professional doctor, like Rand Wogel could save his life, even in a small flat, without assistants or proper instruments.

It took six hours for him to cure the injuries of the Jedi, but he did a good job. He fixed the cut on Seda's side, and plastered his broken leg. Only the two missing fingers were irreparable without the hospital's instruments, because he couldn't attach the mechanical finger to the nerves without the robot assistants.

'I'll tell you, where to attach the wires.' said Khal. 'I can use the force to sense, if it's in the right place.'

'No way.' said Rand with surprise. 'It's unbelievable! This force could help us in the hospital. Sounds it's better then the robots.'

'It is.' smiled Khal. He seemed to be in a much better condition. 'But it'll take a lot of time. It's better to start at once.'


	3. Investigation on Bakura

The Black Crow was flying through the hyperspace in the direction of the planet Bakura. The energy cell of the hyperdrive engine was low, but the store energy was more than enough to support the engine until they reach their destination.

'So he's been betrayed by his soldiers, and now he promised to help us, once we're back in the Republic territory.' Hector summarized the story of Odalon, which Ci Moss told him.

'That is correct.' said Ci Moss.

'I still don't trust him.' groaned Hector.

'But I do.' said Ci Moss. 'And that's enough, because I am the boss.'

Suddenly the co-pilot's computer started to indicate something.

'What's happening?' asked Odalon, who just stepped into the cockpit.

'We're getting a message.' said Hector. He turned to the computer, and touched a few keys. 'But it's just a weak signal. It's like a radio transmission to the whole sector, or maybe the whole galaxy.'

'Let me see!' said Odalon, and he looked at the communicator.

'Do you know what's that?' asked Hector.

'Yes.' Odalon nodded. 'It's a code, used by the Jedi Order. The message commands every Jedi to return to the Jedi Temple on Corouscant, because the war is over.'

'What?' groaned Hector.

'We have to go to Corouscant.' said Odalon.

'No.' said Ci Moss suddenly.

'What did you say?' asked Odalon frustrated.

'It must be a trap. Your clone troops turned on you, but they followed a secret order, as you told. I think, the same should have happened to some other Jedi all over the galaxy. Maybe all of them have been killed.' explained Ci Moss.

'That's impossible.' shouted Odalon. 'Who could've done such a thing?'

'I don't know. Maybe a Separatist leader got access to the main command post of the Republic on Corouscant, or killed the Chancellor and took his place, and there are thousand other possibilities. But if the Jedi have been attacked, that mean, the war is not over yet. You should not return to Corouscant. Not until you find out, what is the situation in the Republic.'said Ci Moss.

'I don't believe what you're telling.' Odalon shook his head.

'I think, you should rest, before we arrive at Bakura.' said the General, and he led Odalon to the bedroom of the ship.

Bakura was a planet, far from the centre of the galaxy. It's atmosphere was filled with various types of gases, and a couple of them was harmful, so people shouldn't breath the air for long time. That was the reason, why people kept a small package of oxygen with them all the time, and the visitors also got one at the docks of the Planet. On Bakura there was a heavy volcanic activity. Many power plants were built on the volcanoes, and they learned to control the eruptions. These power plants had special machinery to keep the volcano from erupting. They draw the energy out of the lava, and decreased it's heat, until it hasn't got enough power to get out of the magma pit. But even with these defences, sometimes a volcano erupted, and destroyed the whole facility and even the nearby cities. Fortunately that happened only once or twice in a hundred years.

The planet has many small moons, and three bigger ones. There were cities on these three moons, which were mostly space-ports. A simple ship couldn't land on the planet itself, but on one of the moons, and then the passengers or the cargo were put into ferries which took them to the surface of the planet. On the smaller moons there were mines, because of the coal and various types of metal, of which was plenty under the surface of the moons.

When the Black Crow left the hyperspace, it was heading to the biggest moon, which was called MoB-01. It was not a really interesting name, but Bakura had no natives, and the people, who used the planet and the moons didn't used their imagination when they chose name for them.

The last few years of Bakura was really out of the ordinary. It was a planet, which kept it's independence through the Clone Wars. It neither belonged to the Republic nor to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, but both sides were trading with the planet.

'I am the captain of the Black Crow. There are three people on board, and no cargo. I am asking for a landing permission.' said Ci Moss into the communicator.

'Please wait for a few moments.' said the navigator from the space-port's control tower. After a few minutes he told: 'You can land in dock 79.'

'Thank you.'

The Black Crow lowered to the surface of the moon, an joined into one of the flying routes, leading to the space-port. When they reached dock 79, Hector landed the ship.

'We've hit the ground.' he said satisfied.

'Let's find a ferry,which takes us to the Capital.' suggested Ci Moss.

'Why we're going to the Capital?' asked Odalon.

'I wish to see the Governor of the planet. Maybe he can help us.' said Ci Moss.

'Great.' mumbled Odalon. 'We're wasting our time.'

They left the ship, and headed to the ferry dock. Ci Moss bought three tickets to the next ferry, going to the city of Salis D'aar, the Capital of Bakura. Odalon still didn't think it was a good idea, but he didn't have better. They agreed, that he needed new clothes, which were less eye-catching than his Jedi robes.

The space-port was full of alien creatures, arrived form every part of the galaxy. Even really surprising figures turned up, frog-looking, elephant-headed, eight-legged, and bantha smelling aliens filled the whole space-port. They were more than four thousand, but it was not a big number, because Bakura was out of the main territories of the galaxy.

Odalon, Ci Moss and Hector got on the ferry, and saw the MoB-01 as it's getting smaller, and smaller in the space behind them. The journey didn't take long, it was only half an hour. They landed in the main ferry dock of the capital, where some eagle-eyed security guards inspected them. They found their blasters, and sealed them into a safe, guarded by a magnetic door. Ci Moss had to set a code, which opened the safe, and they could take the blasters out of there, but only when they left the Capital.

After that, the security guards handed the oxygen tanks to them, and they warned them to use it at least once an hour to clear their lugs from the gases of the atmosphere.

'Now, we are going to the Governor's office.' said Ci Moss.

But first of all, they lent a speeder for four. Hector was driving the speeder, and they reached the Governor's office really fast.

The city of Salis D'aar was a bit similar to a part of Corouscant, with tall buildings and crowded streets. A few million people lived there, and every offices of the planet was located in this city. Whole Bakura was controlled from here.

'I wish to see the Governor.' said Ci Moss to the secretary, who was sitting in front of the door, leading to the office. They got there easily, because Ci Moss had enough credits to convince everyone, who thought, they shouldn't see the Governor.

'I can't let you in.' said the secretary.

'I am Ci Moss, General of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and it is extremely important to meet the Governor as soon as possible.' said Ci Moss.

'He is negotiating at the moment.' said the secretary. 'Can I take a message for him?'

'Who is he negotiating with?' asked Ci Moss, like he didn't even hear the secretary's question.

'That is not your business, sir.' said the secretary severely.

'Excuse me.' apologised Ci Moss. 'I think, I will be back later.'

The three of them left the building, sat in the speeder, but they didn't go anywhere. They were waiting for the person, who the Governor was negotiating with to leave the office.

'I know, it is not my business, but I am curious about that person.' said Ci Moss. 'Probably he can not help us, but there is a little chance, that he can.'

Some minutes later the person turned up in the door of the building. He was a middle-aged human, with dark hair and a bit pale face. He wore elegant clothes, but he sat into a speeder, similar to the one, which Ci Moss lent.

'I think we should follow him.' said Ci Moss. 'I have the impression, that he has something to cover.'

'I'm sure, I saw this guy before.' Odalon said.

'Who's he?' asked Hector.

'I don't know. But I remember, once I saw this face. Maybe on Corouscant.'

'After him!' ordered Ci Moss, and Hector navigated the speeder after the man's one.

As they were following the stranger, Odalon noticed, that they were not heading to a concrete destination. The stranger person must have noticed that he has been followed, and he was luring them somewhere. Ci Moss also noticed it, and he saw two other speeders, following them.

Finally the man stopped in a narrow, deserted street. Hector also stopped their speeder, and they got out of it.

The stranger stepped in front of the three of them, facing Ci Moss. Behind them, the two speeders closed the way, leading back to the main street.

'Who are you, and why did you follow me?' asked the man. He was tall, not as Hector and Ci Moss, but taller than Odalon. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes, with a grave look. He seemed to be very elegant, and if Ci Moss should have had to guess, where was he from, he would have said Alderaan.

'I am Ci Moss, General of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.' he replied. 'This is my wingman, Lieutenant Hector Soron, and he is Odalon, a friend of mine, from Tanaab.'

'So you are Separatists.' quoted the man.

'Me and my wingman are Separatists no more. And Odalon have never been the part of the Confederacy.' said Ci Moss.

'And why did you follow me?' asked the man.

'Because we would like to ask for your help.' said Ci Moss.

'How can I help you?'

'We have found a Jedi.' said Ci Moss.

The man didn't say anything, and he was still looking at Ci Moss with emotionless face. The General continued:

'He was dead.'

Odalon wanted to cut in, but Hector made him to be quiet with a sharp look.

'That's bad news.' said the man, and he ducked his head.

'Excuse me sir, but I lied.' said Ci Moss. 'The Jedi is not dead, but I had to find out your intention to Jedi.'

'Are you a Jedi knight?' asked the man.

'Not me, but Odalon.' Ci Moss replied.

'I think, I should take you to Senator Organa.' said the man. 'We are organising a secret group, and we are looking for surviving Jedi.'

'What?' shouted Odalon. 'How many Jedi have died?'

'I don't know, and please stop asking questions. Senator Organa will tell you everything.' said the man.

'Would you tell us your name?' asked Ci Moss.

'I am Bail Antilles.' said the man. 'Wait for me at the space-port. I will give you the coordinates of our secret base.'

Antilles turned around, and left with his speeder. As Odalon turned around, he saw, that the others have also gone.

'We should get back to the Black Crow, and fill it's energy stores.' said Ci Moss.

A few hours later they were sitting on the ferry again. The rocky, mountainous surface of Bakura was getting further and further. The ferry slowly left the atmosphere of the planet, and headed to the MoB-01.

'I've told you, I saw that guy before.' mumbled Odalon. 'On Corouscant, in the Senate. He was the Senator of Alderaan before Organa.'

'What could be that secret organisation, he was talking about?' asked Ci Moss.

'Who cares!' groaned Odalon. 'He said something about Jedi slaughter.'

'Be quiet!' hissed Hector. 'We don't wanna tell everyone, you're a Jedi.'

'Sorry. I'm just frustrated.' said Odalon. 'I can't stand waiting.'

They left the ferry, and they walked back to their ship. The Black Crow was standing in the dock 79, where they left it. Hector said, he's going to get fuel and energy replenishment for the ship.

'I haven't slept for ages.' said Ci Moss. 'Please inform me, when Antilles comes.'

The General got into the Black Crow, and lay on one of the beds. He fell asleep almost immediately.

Odalon decided to go for a walk in the space-port. He thought, Antilles won't show up in a few hours. He was walking through the crowded streets and squares. The moon had an artificial atmosphere over the space-port, but further there wasn't any breathable gases.

The space-port was located under a huge dome. It has an artificial gravity too, and heating, so it was liveable for people.

Odalon saw countless shops, selling everything, but mostly worthless objects like the "solar locator" which could determine the coordinates of any ship in the galaxy, according to the advertisement, or the "pocket-cloaking device", which could hide your ship from anybody's radar, doesn't matter how small or big your ship was. These things were obviously fakes, because there was no cloaking device that small, and nothing could determine a ship's coordinates without any transmitter on the exact spacecraft, which could be located, and only from a smaller distance, not from anywhere.

But Odalon saw shockers, micro-blasters, which had power for only a couple of shots, and a wide range of tools for almost everything you could imagine.

Over the shops, there were a few pubs and cantinas. Odalon didn't stay there more than a few minutes, because there were many aggressive creatures (who were definitely sentenced to death in a couple of star systems).

When Odalon returned to the Black Crow, Ci Moss was already awaken. Hector was waiting for the Jedi impatiently on the ramp, while Ci Moss checked every systems of the ship. When he was sure, that everything is working correctly, he started the engines.

'Where the hell you've been?' asked Hector.

'What happened?' questioned Odalon.

'Antilles was here. We've got the coordinates.' Hector replied. 'And we'd better get going, cuz' the journey will last two days.'

Meanwhile on Corouscant...

'Sense a Jedi, I do.' said Master Yoda.

'He's come back because of the message?' asked Obi-Wan.

'We'll see.'

They just left the Tantive IV in an escape pod, and landed in a poor quarter of Corouscant, not too far from the Jedi Temple. But as they were walking towards the Temple, suddenly a speeder turned up, and headed directly to the two Jedi.

Yoda raised his hand, and he made the speeder slow down, and stop before them by using the force. In the speeder they saw a Biquirin, who was fatter than the average of them. He had the two soft horns under his jaw, the green and grey skin, and the big, black eyes.

'Who are you?' asked Obi-Wan. He sensed, that the Biquirin was looking for them, but the creature was not quiet sure, that he found the correct people.

'I am Rand Wogel.' said the Biquirin. 'Khal Seda sent me. He is a Jedi.'

'Where is he?' asked Obi-Wan.

'I take you to him.' said Wogel.

The two Jedi knights sat into the speeder, and let Wogel to take them to his flat. They stepped through the door, and noticed a Jedi, sitting on a chair, next to the window. It was Khal Seda, the Jedi knight, but he has been changed. He seemed to be much older, and he was in bad condition. On his right hand, he had two mechanical fingers, lending a bizarre look to his hand. His right leg was also in plaster, created by Rand.

'What happened to you?' asked Obi-Wan, stepping to the Jedi.

'Clones attacked the Jedi Temple. I escaped.' said Khal.

'Unable to help us now, you are.' said Yoda. 'Rest here, you must.'

'I want to help.' mumbled Khal.

'Stay here, and wait. Possible, it is, that return, we will not. Contact with Senator Organa you must, when powerful enough, you will be.' said Yoda.

'What should I do then?' asked Khal.

'Tell you everything, Organa will. But now, stay here, you must. Leave this house, do not, until healthy, you are. Maybe come, other Jedi could. Need your information, they will.' said Yoda.

Khal Seda nodded. He really wanted to help the two Jedi, but he knew, he was not in the right condition. He was even unarmed. It was almost unbearable to feel helpless, but he could hope, that Obi-Wan and Yoda will succeed.

They still don't know about Anakin. Should he tell them? He couldn't tell the terrible truth to Obi-Wan about his own apprentice. Finally he only said:

'May the force be with you!'


	4. Rise of the Empire

Hector estimated the time of the journey well. They spent about two days on the Black Crow, until they arrived to the coordinates, given by Bail Antilles. As long as they were travelling, Hector taught Odalon how to control the ship.

Now the Jedi could pilot the Black Crow, do the co-pilot's job or use the cannon. He could even control the four small blasters on the ship, which were useful against simple ground units, but not spaceships. He learned, that the hyperdrive engine of the ship was over the ceiling of the main room, the energy stores were located in the wings of the ship, close to the engines, and other useful information about the Crow.

'And what does that light indicate?' asked Odalon, pointing at a small lamp on the control panel.

'If that light's green, we're out of hyperspace, if blue, we're flying on light speed, and if red, we're also on light speed, but closer than a parsec to our destination.' explained Hector.

The light suddenly changed to red.

'Finally!' sighed Odalon.

It took another half hour to arrive at the coordinates. Hector switched the hyperdrive off, and turned on the engines. As they looked out into the space through the window, they saw a couple of giant rocks floating in front of them.

'An asteroid field!' shouted Odalon.

He has read about asteroid fields. It was almost impossible to navigate through them. There were only a few people in the galaxy who dared to fly into an asteroid field.

'Turn around!' shouted Odalon.

'Don't be so coward!' said Hector. 'I could navigate through this even asleep.'

'You're mad!' cried Odalon.

'Look, it is not the dangerous type of the asteroid fields.' said Hector. 'These rocks are bigger than a mile, and they're moving much slower than us. And if you have a look at it, you'll see, there are only a few asteroids out there. Maximum ten thousand, but the whole field has the size of twenty planets, so there'll be no problem with it.'

'Are you sure about that?' asked Odalon.

'Absolutely.' smiled Hector. 'Go, wake up Ci Moss! Tell him, we're here.'

Odalon woke up the General, who got out to the cockpit, and sat in the co-pilot's seat. He set a couple of things on the computer, and scanned the whole area for any sign of a secret base.

'Nothing.' he said. 'It is interesting.'

They were flying between the giant rocks, but found no sign of a secret base or a space station, or even a spaceship.

'Maybe they are using a cloaking device.' said Ci Moss.

'Then how can we find 'em?' cried Odalon.

'Wait! I see something.' said Ci Moss, staring at his computer. 'It is a spaceship. It has Republic signal.'

Suddenly a ship turned up out of the asteroid field. They could see the small, light point through the window, but the radar showed the ship better.

'Move the Crow behind an asteroid!'commanded Ci Moss.

'I think they've already spotted us.' said Hector, as he piloted the ship near one of the bigger rocks.

'But if they did not, we can hide even from their radar.' said Ci Moss.

The Black Crow was now floating over the surface of an asteroid. Hector scanned the rock, and he found a huge amount of iron in it, so he switched the engine off, and turned on a magnetic tractor beam. The tractor beam was working on seven percent, but that was enough to keep the ship hiding above the asteroid, and it used less energy than the engine, so it was harder to detect.

'If we want to hide, we can't use the deflector shields.' noted Hector.

'I know.' said Ci Moss. 'Keep up scanning every signal in the area. If you see bigger power-handling than the engine power of that ship, activate our shields at once, and set them to maximum power. We have to act fast, if they decide to attack.'

But nothing happened for a few minutes. The stranger spaceship got closer to the Black Crow, but they didn't seemed to be planning to attack. Then a weak signal came from the ship, and Hector immediately reached for the controls of the deflector shields, but Ci Moss caught his hand.

'It is a message.' said the General.

The message was transmitted from the stranger ship. It contained the identification of the vessel. That was an armed civilian ship with Republic signal. It was a Corellian Corvette, with the identification of the Tantive IV.

'Seems they're friendly.' said Hector.

'Make contact with the ship!' ordered Ci Moss.

The connection was built almost immediately, and a human face turned up on the communicator's screen.

'I am Raymus Antilles, Captain of the Tantive IV. Please, identify yourself, stranger.' he said.

'I am Ci Moss, General of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and Captain of the Black Crow.' replied Ci Moss. 'I came to meet Senator Bail Organa.'

'What makes you think he is here?' asked Captain Antilles.

'Bail Antilles told me three days ago. He gave these coordinates. We came from the planet Bakura.'

'I would like to...' began Antilles, but someone called him from his ship, and he disappeared from the screen for a few seconds.

When he returned, he said:

'Senator Organa wishes to meet you personally, General Ci Moss. He invited you to our secret base on Polis Massa.'

After the connection broke, another flashing light turned up on the radar. It seemed to be some kind of building.

Hector set the engines on, and piloted the ship in the direction of the building. It was a space station, built on the surface of a giant asteroid. It really had a cloaking device, which hid it from the radar of the Balck Crow.

The Tantive IV landed on the asteroid, next to the base, and a couple of men, wearing spacesuits got out of it. They slowly walked to the base, and entered through the sluice gate.

The Black Crow landed near the Tantive IV, and the three passengers put on their spacesuits. The gravity on Polis Massa was half of the normal gravity, but in the base there was artificial gravity field generated.

Ci Moss, Odalon and Hector stepped into the sluice gate, and they felt the change of the gravity. Then they heard a voice, telling that they can remove their spacesuits. They did, and breathed normal air.

'Welcome to the secret base of Polis Massa.' said Senator Bail Organa as the three of them entered.

Ci Moss bowed, and he said:

'I am Ci Moss, General of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. This is my wingman, Lieutenant Hector Soron. And he is Odalon, a Jedi knight.'

'It is an honour to meet you.' bowed Organa. 'Please, follow me to the conference room. I think, we have much to discuss.'

They followed him, and sat on three comfortable seats in the conference room.

'I think, I should tell you first, what is this place. It is the secret base of our secret organisation. A couple of Senators realised, that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine won't give up his power. We tried to convince him, with no results. A couple of days ago the Chancellor abolished the Republic, and found the Galactic Empire. He also commanded all clone troops all over the galaxy, to kill the Jedi. Only a few Jedi survived.'

'It can't be!' cried Odalon. 'I don't believe this.'

'It is true.'said Organa. 'That is why we are trying to organise a group which can stand against the Emperor, and Darth Vader.'

'Who?' asked Odalon.

'Darth Vader. He is a Sith knight. The apprentice of the Sith lord, who is Palpatine himself.' explained Organa.

'No...' mumbled Odalon. 'It can't be true...'

Odalon felt totally hopeless. He was staring at the floor, and his eyes filled with tears. He thought about his Master, and the other Jedi. He felt a disturbance in the force. He didn't know really, what he felt, and he didn't even care about that.

'Senator Organa!' said someone, stepping into the conference room. 'Senator Amidala's ship has arrived.'

'I'll be there in a moment.' said Organa.

The other man bowed, and left the room.

'I show you your rooms.' said Organa. 'Please, follow me.'

Odalon stepped into his room, fell on the bed, and he was crying. He couldn't accept, that all Jedi have gone. He felt hate and anger rushing through his mind. He wanted to see Palpatine and this Darth Vader dead. He wanted to kill them with his own hands.

His master's teachings also came to his mind, and he knew, he was closer to the dark side, than ever. But he couldn't fight his dark thoughts. He tried to control his mind, but he couldn't. He fought himself for a long time, without any result, and finally he fell asleep, and woke up only six hours later.

He left his room, and went to find some food. But he got lost in the base, and he stepped into a room, where only a Twi'lek was laying on a table. As Odalon inspected her, he saw, she was dead. And he also noticed, she was a Jedi.

Odalon felt the anger again. He spotted the lightsaber of the Jedi, laying next to her, and he immediately took it.

'She is Aayla Secura. We found her on Felucia.' said someone behind Odalon.

It was Senator Organa. He was standing at the door of the room.

'Can I take it?' asked Odalon, pointing at the lightsaber. 'I mean, she's dead, and I need a new lightsaber. I hope she wouldn't mind it.'

'Take it.' nodded Organa.

Odalon put the saber on his belt.

'And now, please follow me. Someone wants to see you.' said Organa.

Organa led Odalon to the conference room, where a small, old Jedi Master was sitting in a chair. He was holding a curve wooden staff.

'Master Yoda!' said Odalon surprised.

'Greetings, Odalon.' the old Jedi welcomed him.

Senator Organa left the room, leaving the two Jedi alone in there.

'Organa told me, you wanted to see me.' said Odalon, and he sat in a chair, next to Yoda.

'True, that is.' nodded the old Master. 'I sense, struggling with anger, you are. Pain in your heart, you have.'

'Of course I have!' cried Odalon. 'My Master has gone. All the Jedi has gone. How I couldn't have pain in my heart?'

'Natural, it is. But solution to anything, revenge is not.' said Yoda.

'Then I should sit here, and watch as Palpatine destroys the entire galaxy?' shouted Odalon. 'Why don't you go and kill him? Because you don't wanna take revenge? It's not the Jedi way to kill someone, who destroyed the Jedi Order and the Republic? Then I'm not a Jedi any more.'

'Not so simple, it is.' said Yoda calmly.

'Then tell me what's so complicated!' shouted Odalon.

'Tell you, I can't. Too angry, you are. Everything can go wrong.' said Yoda on a quiet voice.

'So you can't tell me, huh?' cried out Odalon. 'Maybe you're just telling lies! But I will deal with this on my own, if you don't help me! And you won't be able to hold me back!'

'Holding you back, I am not. Just ask you to meditate, I do. And think about your decisions, you should.' said Yoda, and he left the room.

Odalon was looking after him, then he smacked at the table. He was sure now, what to do. He will travel to Corouscant, and kill Palpatine and Darth Vader.

As Odalon got back to his room, to prepare for the journey, Senator Organa talked with Master Yoda, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was also at Polis Massa, however, only a few people knew about his presence. Then he looked for Ci Moss, and found him on a corridor. Ci Moss was standing at the window, looking at the starry sky.

'Do you know, what Odalon's up to?' asked Organa.

'I think, he is about to travel to Corouscant.' replied Ci Moss.

'He's not listening to Yoda.' Organa continued.

'And you think, that maybe I can convince him?' asked Ci Moss.

'I don't.' Organa shook his head. 'But he is a Jedi, and he could be useful for us, fighting against the Empire. And I think you are friends.'

'Well, maybe we have befriended on our journey.' nodded Ci Moss.

After a short pause Organa continued:

'I would like you to join him. Maybe you could keep him from doing stupidities.'

'I wouldn't be so sure of that.' said Ci Moss.

'He respects you, even if he doesn't show it.' said Organa. 'So what do you say?'

Ci Moss smiled at the Senator, and said:

'Fortunately, I was planning to join him before you asked me. I am ready for the journey.'

Odalon put his blaster and lightsaber on his belt. The new saber didn't suit him as the old one. He had tried it, and he almost hurt himself. He picked up his most needed equipment, and headed to the slice gate. At the gate he bumped into Ci Moss, who was standing there in his four-armed spacesuit.

'What do you think about travelling with the Black Crow again?' asked the General.

'I'd like to.' said Odalon, and he put his spacesuit on. 'Where's Hector?'

'He is waiting for us in the Crow.' replied Ci Moss, and he put on his helmet.

They stepped into the slice gate together, and left the space station. They felt the change of the gravity, when they got out to the surface of the asteroid. As Ci Moss looked back, at the station, he saw Organa at the window of the main control tower of the base. The Senator waved at them.

'Let's get going!' said Odalon, when he stepped into the Black Crow.

The air stayed in the ship, even when it's ramp was open, because of the thin, weak energy shield, covering the entrance. It was created to prevent the air from leaving the ship, but it didn't have any effect on other things, so Odalon and Ci Moss could cross it easily.

Ci Moss also got on board, and he sat into the co-pilot's seat, next to Hector.

'Is the ship ready for the take off?' he asked.

'Ready.' said Hector, and he started the engines.

The Black Crow slowly left the surface of Polis Massa, and headed to the asteroid field. Hector piloted the ship between the rocks, and they reached the end of the field in a couple of minutes. There Ci Moss charged the hyperdrive engine, and the Black Crow made the jump to light-speed.


	5. Horror in the Jedi Temple

Corouscant. The capital of the Empire. The whole planet was cowered with buildings, and it had the biggest space-port in the galaxy. Thousands of spaceships arrived and left the space-port every day. And at the control towers of the space-port, there were hundreds of droids and computers working to log every ship, and navigate them safe through the port. Even hundreds of living people were working there. They had to contact with the pilots, and they controlled the computers and droids.

The Black Crow landed successfully. Odalon, Ci Moss and Hector left the ship. They didn't make any stir as they walked through the gigantic space-port, to the bus station.

The bus was a ship, only used in the atmosphere to transport people. One bus could carry about two thousand people. There were bus lines all around Corouscant, and they were very useful, because this way people, who didn't have their own speeder, could travel from one side of the planet to the other in less than eight hours.

Odalon, Ci Moss and Hector bought three tickets, and boarded the bus. They were heading to the Jedi Temple.

'Why do you want to go there?' asked Ci Moss.

'Maybe we could find some useful information there about other surviving Jedi.' said Odalon.

'So you are not planning to kill the Emperor on your own?'

'If I find no one who can help me, than I must face him alone.' mumbled Odalon.

'I will help you anyway.' said Ci Moss.

They arrived at the Jedi Temple. The bus stop was about two miles from the Temple itself, so they had to walk a bit. But while they were closing the Temple, Odalon was thinking about tactics, to get inside, if it's guarded by clones, or as they were now called, "stormtroopers".

He was right. In front of the Jedi Temple, there were standing a couple of stormtroopers. They were holding blasters. It was unable to get inside this way, through these troopers.

But Odalon knew a secret entrance, on the other side of the Temple. They got there, but that was guarded too. It seemed, that the stormtroopers had found the secret entrance too. Or maybe someone had showed them. But that was impossible, unless a Jedi betrayed the Order...

'How we gonna get in there?' asked Hector.

'Through the air-conditioning system.' replied Odalon.

They looked for one of the holes, where the air-conditioning system drew fresh air from the atmosphere. Odalon removed the bars from it, and the three of them got into the narrow tube.

They were climbing through the air-conditioning system, but they had to avoid the fans. These fans were not dangerous to man-sized creatures, but if any of them stopped even for a second, an alarm warned the people in the Jedi Temple's main control room. And Odalon was sure, that if the stormtroopers are guarding the Temple, there must be a couple of them in the control room.

'This is it.' said Odalon on a low voice.

He removed the rails from a hole, where they could get out of the air-conditioning system. They found themselves in one of the many meditation rooms of the Temple.

'Where we gonna go now?' asked Hector.

'I think, our first target should be the Jedi Archives. Maybe I can find something in the computers.' said Odalon.

'Do the Jedi have their plans for their secret operations in the main computer of the Jedi Archives?' asked Ci Moss.

'No.' replied Odalon.

'Then I don't think, we have anything to do in there.' said Ci Moss.

'Why?' asked Odalon.

'We need to know, where the Jedi had gone during the last period of the war. If any of the Jedi survived, they can probably be found on their last known location. And if they are already not there, you should also start the search for them on these locations.' explained Ci Moss.

'Maybe you're right.' nodded Odalon. 'But then we should get to the computer, in which the Jedi kept these informations.'

'Where is the computer?' asked Ci Moss.

'It's five levels higher, and in the opposite side of the Temple.' replied Odalon.

'And did the Jedi use any kind of encryption, when they stored all their secret info in a computer?'

'Actually they did.' said Odalon, and he sat on a chair, which had no back. These chairs were used by the Jedi, who were meditating while sitting on these chairs. 'I don't know how they sealed the files.'

'We should come back later, with a droid, which can break into the computer.' said Hector.

'Maybe not.' mumbled Ci Moss.

'What do you mean?' asked Hector.

'I mean, if we have a bit of luck, the Imperials have already broke into the computer, and they decrypted the files.' said Ci Moss.

'Let's see that!' shouted Odalon, jumping to his feet. 'We can't waste our time!'

They left the meditation room, and sneaked along the corridors to the staircase. They heard footsteps coming down on the stairs. They immediately got into a small room, full of equipment for the daily life of the Jedi Temple.

The footsteps got closer, and closer. They walked in front of the small room. Odalon, and his two friends held their breath. The footsteps finally left for another corridor. The Jedi peeped out, and he saw the deserted corridor.

They continued their way up the stairs, and in the direction of the place, where the computer was situated. They saw another couple of stormtroopers patrolling on the corridors, but they evaded them successfully.

'Here we are.' said Odalon, and stepped into the room.

The room was circle shaped. In the middle there was a big computer, which could also project holographs into the air. It had many terminals all around it. A bit further there were many seats, arranged in circles around the computer in the middle, so everyone, sitting in one of them could face the holographs.

Odalon stepped to a terminal, and turned it on with a button. The whole computer revived, and started to give a loud buzzing voice. All of them was worried about being spotted by the stormtroopers, so Hector drew his blaster, and stood next to the door to notice if anyone was coming. Odalon and Ci Moss looked at the computer.

Ci Moss was right. The Imperials have decrypted the files, so they could easily find out everything about the Jedi's operations during the Clone Wars.

'Download the files, and get out of here!' said Ci Moss, and he handed a small data medium to Odalon.

The Jedi connected the disk to the computer, and set all files to be copied on it.

While, in the main control room of the Jedi Temple, an Imperial officer, who was a clone, noticed something on one of his computers.

'What the hell is this?' groaned Sergeant Zero.

'What is it, Sergeant?' asked a stormtrooper, who was sitting in a comfortable armchair. There were three other troopers in the room.

'Someone is using the computer in the "holo-room".' Zero said.

'Should I call the Commander?' asked the stormtrooper.

'Definitely.' nodded the Sergeant. 'And send a couple of troopers down there to see what's going on!'

The stormtrooper got up from the armchair, and stepped to his communicator. He didn't wear his helmet, so he could easily put the communicator into his ear. But, before he could call his Commander, an incoming transmission made him really nervous.

'Sergeant.' he said. 'Lord Vader's shuttle has just arrived at the landing pad.'

.

'Someone's coming.' whispered Hector from the door.

'I still need a minute.' hissed Odalon. 'Maybe they're going on.'

'Hide!' commanded Ci Moss.

They hid behind the seats, which were all over the room. Ci Moss drew his blaster, and Odalon drew his lightsaber. He had never used that weapon, and now he thought, he should have practised a bit with the new saber.

Two stormtroopers stepped into the room, and they immediately noticed, that the computer is on.

'The computer's on, sir. But there's no one here.' one reported through his communicator, built into his helmet.

They got orders from the Commander to search the place, so they didn't leave, as Odalon hoped. The stormtroopers started to look after hiding people, and they got so close to Ci Moss. But before they could see him, the computer gave a beeping voice. The copy of the files has finished.

'Look! Someone's stealing info!' shouted one of the troopers.

He raised his weapon, and shot at the computer before Odalon, Hector or Ci Moss could react. The blast crushed into the computer terminal.

Hector, Ci Moss and Odalon stood up at the same time. Hector and Ci Moss shot laser blasts at the troopers, and Odalon jumped at their direction over the seats. One of the troopers was hit by Hector's shot, and fell to the floor. He was dead.

The other shot, but missed Hector. Suddenly he saw Odalon arriving next to him. He shot at the Jedi, but Odalon deflected it with his lighsaber. The stormtrooper didn't have another chance. He followed his partner to death.

'Come on! Get out of here!' shouted Ci Moss.

Odalon put his lightsaber away, and ran to the damaged computer terminal. He saw, that the disk, which he filled with the secret data, was destroyed by the laser blast.

'I can't believe it!' he cried, and kicked the computer.

'Run!' shouted Hector. 'They're coming!'

Odalon ran to the door, and stepped out on the corridor. He heard footsteps from the right, so he tuned left, and ran after Ci Moss and Hector. He had a bad feeling in his heart

They turned into a smaller corridor, and a couple of laser blasts crashed the wall behind them. Dust and debris fell from the white wall, and they heard the closing troopers behind them.

Ci Moss led the three of them to the staircase. They ran downwards, but they just decreased one and a half level, when laser shots impacted next to them.

The stormtroopers reached the stairs, and shot at them. They left the staircase on the next level, and ran through a bridge, leading across the Jedi Temple's Great Hall. Giant columns were holding the ceiling above them, and down they saw the Great Hall from fifteen meters high.

Laser shots flitted over their head. The stormtroopers were shooting at them from the staircase. Then some other blasts came from below, and from other directions. About twenty troopers were shooting at the escaping people in the Great Hall. But fortunately they were too far to hit their target.

The team reached another corner, and turned right. They were now covered by a wall. They were running along the corridor, which had a couple of windows on the left. They reached another stairway, which was only four meters long, and led to the level below this. At the end of the stairs, there was another corner.

As Odalon turned, he almost bumped into a giant, black robot-like man. He was tall, and strong in his black armour. He wore a helmet and a mask to breath through it. He had some kind of control panel on his chest, and he wore a huge black cape on his back. And in his hand, he held a lightsaber!

'What is this?' shouted Odalon.

'You've come here to die, Jedi!' said the black-suited man on a strange, mechanical voice. His breathing through the mask gave a weird loud snuffling voice.

Odalon suddenly felt the force around his throat. He touched his neck, but felt nothing with his hands. He couldn't breath, and he couldn't defend himself. His lightsaber fell from his fingers and lay on the floor. He was choking.

Suddenly a laser blast flew close to Odalon, and hit the shoulder of the black-armoured man. He gave a loud cry, and leant to the wall. He looked at Ci Moss, and Hector, who were holding their blasters, pointing at the black man.

Darth Vader, the evil lord of the Sith, took a step towards his enemies, but he was hit again. His left hand sparkled when the laser blast impacted. He tilted forward, and he could hardly keep his balance.

He just got into this terrible suit, and he couldn't control all his mechanical parts correctly. He needed to concentrate on every step, he took. He was now standing there, with his hands hanging next to him, facing the floor. Then he suddenly rose, and with his empty right hand caught the throat of Ci Moss.

The former Separatist General lost his blaster, and was hanging in Darth Vader's hand, pushed to the wall.

Odalon was kneeing on the floor, touching his neck, and breathing heavily. He couldn't help his friend at the moment.

Hector raised his blaster, but before he could pull the trigger, a sudden force-rush tore it out of his hand, and threw it away, in the direction of the arriving stormtroopers.

Odalon tried to get his lightsaber, and raised it. He stroke at Darth Vader, but the Sith lord deflected his attack with his own saber. Vader's move was too strong for Odalon to stand against the mechanical arm, and Vader pushed him away.

Odalon fell to the floor. Neither the unarmed Hector, nor the Jedi could save Ci Moss from Darth Vader. The Sith lord pinched his mechanical fingers, and then released the former General's throat. Ci Moss fell to the floor, with his neck broken. He's dead body was laying at the boots of Darth Vader.


	6. Another narrow escape

'No!' shouted Odalon in horror.

He didn't only see the death of his friend, but he also felt it through the force. It was much more horrifying, and his heart filled with hate and anger in a second. He wanted to kill the black suited man, here and now.

Odalon raised his lightsaber and slashed at Vader, but the Sith easily deflected the strike. Vader pushed the Jedi away again. He moved much more slower, than he could before he got this mechanical armour. But he could strike with much bigger power.

Vader had realised, he couldn't control his armour yet, so he moved a bit slowly and with wide, powerful moves. He tilted aside after every single slash, and he had to concentrate on every move. He could hardly keep his balance.

But Odalon didn't see that. He couldn't stand against Vader's strikes, and he fell to the ground again and again. He had to move backwards to evade Vader's lightsaber.

Odalon was now climbing up the stairs to the corridor, where he and his two friends arrived. A group of stormtroopers were standing there, but they didn't want to encroach the duel. They slowly gave ground to the two fighting people.

Hector also got out of their way, and he could pick up his blaster, because every stormtrooper were watching the duel. He didn't use the blaster, he just prepared to shoot as soon as possible.

'Die Jedi!' groaned Vader, as he reached the end of the stairs. It was a really hard time for him to get up to the next level. He had to concentrate to the battle, and also had to concentrate on every step, he took on the stairs.

But now he was standing on the top of the stairway. Odalon attacked, but Vader deflected again, and this time he kept his lightsaber in front of him. Vader thrust his saber, and Odalon could hardly dodge. He fell to the floor, and he raised his weapon over his head to defend himself. Vader stroke at the lightsaber, and it flew away.

Odalon was now laying there unarmed. He was still filled with anger, so he couldn't concentrate, and couldn't make the force to help him. But as Vader raised his saber to kill him, suddenly fear got into his heart. He wanted to stay alive. He wanted to run, not to fight this mechanical monster.

The next second an explosion shook the corridor. One of the windows broke, and thousands of chips of glass overran the corridor. The explosion pushed Vader to the wall. He lost his ligthsaber, and fell to the ground. He was laying there, leaning to the wall, immobile, with his right hand risen, and pointing at the Jedi.

Also the stormtroopers were pushed to the ground by the explosion. Odalon defended his head with his arms, not to be injured by the chips of glass. Only Hector stood far enough.

'Come, Jedi!' someone shouted from outside.

As Hector jumped to the broken window, he saw a speeder floating next to the Temple. He saw a fat, green-skinned, alien, sitting in the driver's seat.

Odalon stood up, and stepped to the window too. He was still afraid of Vader, and he wanted to get as far from the Sith as he could. He jumped through the window, and grabbed the speeder. The driver helped him to get into the vehicle, and sit beside him.

'Hector!' shouted Odalon.

Hector still didn't move. He didn't want to leave Ci Moss' body here. He was his friend, and partner through his whole life. He felt like Odalon, when he lost his master. But he thought, that Ci Moss wouldn't want him to die for saving a dead body. Finally he jumped.

Odalon caught his friend, and pulled him into the speeder.

'Punch it!' shouted Hector, and the pilot accelerated.

The sun just disappeared at the horizon, and darkness fell over the Jedi Temple. A couple of stormtroopers stepped to the window, and shot at the speeder. Hector drew his blaster and responded the fire, but no one was hit by the laser blasts.

Vader was still laying on the floor of the Temple, and as he saw the stormtroopers shooting after the leaving speeder, he knew, that the Jedi escaped. His mechanical hand fell beside him, and he was immobile. He just concentrated to his breath.

The speeder lowered between two huge buildings. The pilot, who was definitely a Biquirin, drove the speeder as low as he could. He didn't want to be tracked by any kind of radar, or following stormtroopers.

He took a couple of narrow turns, than he flew under the ground. There were many subway lines on Corouscant. On the most of them trains were running, but a few of them were for speeders. They were like tunnels under mountains. These subway lines naturally crossed each other, so if someone was good pilot enough to fly through these tunnels, also the ones used by trains, he was almost unable to be tracked.

But the Biquirin didn't flew for a long time in the subway. He was not a very good pilot actually, so he didn't fly on the train's tracks.

The speeder got to the surface again, and it stopped in front of a house block. The house seemed to be in a bad condition, especially as compared to the houses in the Senate District.

'Get inside!' said the Biquirin, and he stepped into the house. Odalon and Hector followed him.

They climbed up to the sixth floor. There was no elevator in the house, so it was a bit tiring. There the Biquirin opened up a door, and entered one of the flats. The flat was more comfortable than Odalon expected. It didn't seemed to belong to the house.

'Take a seat.' said the host. 'I'll be back in a minute.'

Odalon and Hector sat on two chairs in the dark living room. The Biquirin didn't turn on the lights, and the guests didn't want to do anything before he came back. They were sitting there, desolated by the loss of their friend. They didn't speak a word until the Biquirin returned with another person.

The man seemed to be in bad condition. He's leg was in plaster, and he had two mechanical fingers on his right hand. He wore dark robes, and a black hood.

'Who are you?' asked the man.

'I'm Hector Soron.' said Hector. 'And he's Odalon.'

'I know, who Odalon is. But who are you, Hector Soron?' asked the man.

'I was a Lieutenant in the C.I.S. I served under General Ci Moss.' said Hector.

'I can't read your mind.' mumbled the man. 'So he has a strong mind. Can we trust him?' he asked this from Odalon.

'Definitely.' nodded the Jedi. 'But who are you?'

'I am Khal Seda. I'm a Jedi knight, like you.' replied the man, and he removed his hood. 'Would you tell me what happened to you?'

'The clones turned on me, and my master. They shot master Zaro Kun, but I managed to escape. I joined Hector and Ci Moss on Gymelo. We escaped from the clones, and met Bail Antilles on Bakura. He gave us the coordinates of a secret base, where Senator Organa is organising a group to resist the Emperor. From the base, we came here to fight the Emperor, but we ran into that man... or that robot... I don't know what was that thing. But he killed Ci Moss, and almost us too. Than he saved us.' said Odalon, and he pointed at the Biquirin.

'He is my friend, a doctor. He's name is Rand Wogel.' said Khal.

Wogel bowed before the two guests.

'I think, you were foolish to come here. Maybe you don't know, but Jedi Master Yoda and Jedi Master Kenobi also tried to fight the Emperor, and Darth Vader.' said Khal.

'I know about Yoda.' Odalon cut in. 'But tell me what happened to Kenobi!'

'I don't know.' Khal shook his head. 'They were here, and told me to stay in this flat. As you can see, I'm not in the condition to fight. Then they left.'

'I met Yoda on Polis Massa.' said Odalon. 'But I heard nothing about Kenobi.'

'It is likely, that he died.' said Khal on a low voice. 'The Emperor and Vader are too powerful.'

'Yoda told me, this Darth Vader is a Sith knight. Do you know anything about him?' asked Odalon with anger in his voice.

Khal didn't answer for a few seconds. He thought about Anakin Skywalker, the chosen one, who killed every single Youngling in the Jedi Temple. He felt Odalon's anger, and for a moment he was afraid, that Odalon will turn to the dark side, like Skywalker. He decided not to tell the truth to the young Jedi.

'He is a Sith knight.' nodded Khal. 'He assaulted on the Jedi Temple, and killed everyone. I could hardly escape. He's working for the Emperor.'

'I think, I met this Darth Vader in the Temple.' groaned Odalon. 'He was wearing black armour, and he looked like a droid. He was moving like a droid... He was like a droid, who could use the force.'

'It wasn't him.' said Khal. 'He is not a droid, and doesn't wear armour. He looks like a young human.'

'Then who killed Ci Moss?' cried Odalon.

'I don't know.' Khal shook his head. 'Maybe Yoda could answer your questions, once we get back to Polis Massa.'

'Do you want to leave?' yelled Odalon. 'We have the chance to kill the Emperor! He can't stand against two Jedi!'

'He can.' mumbled Khal. 'He killed Mace Windu, and three other great Jedi. We can't defeat him face to face. Especially not, if he's guarded by that machine-like thing, that you saw, or Darth Vader.'

'Then don't waste our time.' said Hector, and he stood up. 'Head to the Black Crow!'

'Your ship can't leave the planet.' said Khal. 'They know, there's a Jedi on Corouscant. They won't let that vessel leave.'

'What should we do?' asked Hector.

'If I'm right, they won't let any ships to leave Corouscant, except merchants. They'll be inspected by stormtroopers, but maybe two Jedi could deal with a couple of troopers.' said Khal.

'So we'll hide on a merchant's ship?' asked Odalon.

'That's right.' nodded Khal. 'I don't see better way to leave.'

Hector thought about the Black Crow, and he decided to come back one day, and take that ship with him. Now he felt himself the owner of the Black Crow. He thought, that the ship was the last thing, that left for him from Ci Moss.

'Will you come with us, Rand?' asked Khal.

'I don't have any reason to stay.' replied the doctor. 'I just pack a couple of things.'

'There's no time. We must go!' said Odalon impatiently.

'This time you're wrong.' said Khal. 'We'll leave only in the morning. You have to rest, after these adventures.'

The "morning" meant just before sunrise.

Until that time came, Khal Seda removed the plaster from his leg, and hoped, that the bones won't break again. Wogel had gave him medicines, which fastened the recovery of his leg, but it was still far from the perfect. He also put on a pair of black gloves to cover his mechanical fingers.

They headed down to the speeder, and got into it. Rand was the driver again, because he knew the subway most. They were flying through endless tunnels, and they didn't know where they are. Except Wogel, who came up to the surface just before they reached the space-port.

'We need to sneak inside.' said Khal. 'I think, we should get three worker uniforms.'

'Three?' asked Odalon. 'We're four.'

'But Wogel could enter without problems. They're not looking for him, like us.' Khal replied.

'I'll get the uniforms.' said Hector, and he left the speeder.

'Rand, you should leave us now.' said Khal. 'We'll meet up again inside.'

The doctor left the speeder too, and headed to the main entrance of the space-port. The entrance was guarded by a huge number of stormtroopers, and inside the space-port, stormtroopers also patrolled everywhere. They inspected every merchant ships and freighters which were allowed to leave, and they didn't let any other ship to take off.

Wogel got inside with no trouble. He said, he belongs to the medical staff of a convoy of cargo ships, delivering mechanical support to the planet Malastare. He really thought, that they could use this convoy to hide, because Malastare was far from Corouscant, and it hadn't been so strictly regulated by the Republic. He read about the ships on the timetable, near the entrance, which indicated the departure and arrival of every Imperial cargo ships and transports.

He was waiting for the others near the staff entrance, which was also guarded by stormtroopers. It took them more than ten minutes to get inside. They were all wearing blue uniforms which were in bad condition. One of the troopers noticed, that they should change clothes before they get down to work.

'As you wish, sir.' said Hector, and he saluted to the stormtrooper.

Hector remembered, he had to shoot the three workers, wearing the uniforms, so he made a couple of more holes and damages on the clothes, to make the stormtroopers miss the holes caused by the laser blasts. He succeeded.

It was another lucky fact, that not only humans were employed as workers, but many aliens, so the four-handed Hector wasn't eye-catching between them.

'I have the perfect ship to hide.' said Wogel, and he led the team in the direction of the hangar, where the cargo ships were resting. 'They're leaving in twenty minutes.'

In the hangar they saw stormtroopers, and the staff of the ships. The three in the worker's uniforms immediately raised some boxes, filled with mechanical fittings, and took them to the cargo bay of a ship, which was already inspected by the troopers.

The last stormtrooper just left one of the ships, when Hector arrived to the ramp.

'This one's full.' said the trooper. 'Take those things to that one!'

The trooper pointed at another ship. Three stormtroopers just boarded that one, to inspect the vessel.

'I was told to put 'em on this one.' replied Hector, while he was covering his face with the huge box on his shoulder.

'If you put those on this ship I have to search it again.' said the trooper on a nervous voice.

'Have a look at these out here.' suggested Hector.

The trooper was so bored with inspecting ships all the day. Hector noticed this, and he started to lower the box to the ground in front of the trooper.

'Never mind.' groaned the trooper. 'Put 'em on the ship!'

The trooper left for the next freighter, and the three fugitives got on the vessel without any trouble. They took the boxes into the cargo bay, then sat behind the crates, and waited.

Wogel noticed, that the stormtrooper, who the others met was easily convinced, so he headed to the ship while the trooper was still standing next to the ramp.

'Who're you?' asked the trooper.

'I'm the member of the medical staff.' replied Wogel. 'The name is doctor Rand Wogel.'

'Show your identification!' said the trooper bored.

Wogel put his hand into his pocket confidently, and the trooper believed he really had the right identification. He signed to Wogel with a hand gesture, not to show the card, and he left while the doctor boarded the ship with his empty pocket.

He joined the others in the cargo bay, and they were waiting for the take off. They closed the cargo bay's door, because they didn't want to be spotted by stormtroopers or the ship's staff accidentally.

And finally the staff took it's place on the ship. The other freighters of the convoy also got ready for the take off. Then the engine started to roar, and the six cargo ships rose into the air. They left the giant hangar, and flew through the atmosphere of Corouscant.

Wogel heard, when they checked, if every ships left the space-port successfully. He found out, they are hiding in the sixth ship of the convoy, which was called Artemis.

'So you killed the workers?' asked Khal.

'I had no choice.' said Hector. 'But I hid their bodies.'

'Hope they won't find 'em.' mumbled Odalon.

But they had a bad luck. A stormtrooper found the three dead workers. A couple of minutes later Darth Vader turned up at the space-port himself. He, and his special investigating officers found out quickly, that the Jedi must be hiding on one of the ships of the convoy, which is going to Malastare. However, it was too late to stop the convoy now. The six ships entered the hyperspace, and headed to the Malastare System.


	7. Over Malastare

'How long, the journey will last?' asked Odalon.

'We'll be there in four or five hours.' said Rand Wogel.

'The Black Crow is much faster than this junk-yard.' groaned Hector.

'This is an old ship, with old hyperdrive.' said Wogel. 'But you can wait for a few hours.'

Hector stood up, and started to walk up and down impatiently. Then he sat back, and opened one of the crates. He found some computer parts, and tried to build some machine out of them.

'We should've taken some food with us.' he mumbled.

'You know it wasn't possible in our situation.' said Khal Seda.

Hector got more and more annoyed. He tried to keep his frustration inside, and started to think about anything, that came to his mind, because he wanted to forget about the long journey, while he had to stay there, hiding in the cargo bay. Suddenly he raised his head, looked at Odalon, and asked:

'What's your surname?'

'Nothing.' replied the Jedi. 'I am Odalon. That's all.'

'Why?' asked Hector.

'I'm from Tanaab. We don't use surname there.' said the Jedi.

'Oh I see.' nodded Hector. 'And how did you become a Jedi?'

'That's a long story.' said Odalon. 'I was young, when my mother died. She was killed by local bandits. The bandits robbed the whole town. My father took me to the mines, where the children and women were hiding, close to the town, and he went to fight against the bandits. He lost an arm in the battle. The next day, some Jedi arrived, and they defeated most of the bandits. I saw them fighting, and I wished to be one of them, so I could fight and save my family. When the Jedi finished with the bandits, one of them, a young man stepped to me, and he put his hand on my head. Then he went to talk to his master, and my father. He was Zaro Kun, who later became my master. Then, my father called me, and he said, I should join these Jedi. I was afraid. I had to leave him, just after I lost mum. He promised, everything will be all right. So I joined Zaro Kun, and his master on their ship. There were some other Jedi there, but I didn't know who they were. They took me to Coruscant, to the Jedi Temple. There I met Grand Master Yoda. He was the most respected Jedi, and I was so happy, when I could join his students. I was a Youngling, and learned the basics from Master Yoda. Then I had to create my own lightsaber, and I became a Padawan. I didn't have the best fighting and force abilities, but I constructed a perfect saber. I was satisfied with my results. I never wanted to be the best, I just wanted to help others, especially the ones, who were close to me. And a bit I wanted to be a hero. I don't mean, the only hero in the galaxy, or the most famous, just a simple hero, who the others love. Then, I met Zaro Kun again, who asked the Jedi Concil, to let me be his apprentice. He taught me many things, and we became good friends. I respected him as I never did anybody before. He was the best master I could've wished. But then the war burst out. Master Kun was taking care of me, and kept me safe. Then our troops got the order sixty-six, and you know the rest.'

They were sitting there in silent, until the small light above the door of the cargo bay turned to red.

'What's that?' asked Odalon.

'That light indicates, if we fly on light-speed or not. And it's red, when we're close to the destination.' explained Hector. 'There must be one of them in every room of the ships. The Republic didn't let any spaceships to be built without that.'

'So there's one in every room of the ship, if we're flying with a legally built ship.' corrected Odalon.

'Yup.' nodded Hector. 'We'll be there in an hour.'

Hector's estimation was correct. It lasted fifty-six minutes for the convoy to reach the Malastare system. They turned off their hyperdrive engines, and the planet appeared on their radar. As they turned the vessels to the direction of Malastare, they could see the planet through the window too.

In the cargo bay there were no windows, so the four fugitives couldn't see Malastare. And they couldn't see that gigantic spacecraft, which was orbiting the planet, and now started to scan the cargo ships. It was an Imperial, Venator-class Star Destroyer.

The freighter convoy had been built by the Cygnus Spaceworks, more than ten years ago. This type of cargo ship was the first design of the company. It didn't have any cannons or deflector shields, but it could carry much more cargo than any same-sized ships at that time. Later the Cygnus Spaceworks hadn't constructed any freighters, but military ships.

So these freighters needed to be replaced with newer ships, but there was no money for an insignificant problem like this during the Clone Wars. So the freighters were still used, however could easily damaged or anyone could scan it's cargo from another ship.

And that was, what the Imperial Captain ordered on the command bridge of the Star Destroyer. They started to scan the six freighters, while they activated their tractor beam too. The Captain had strict orders to destroy the ship, where the Jedi was hiding, so he didn't want to capture the ships with the tractor beam. He only wanted to hold them back for a few minutes, while they were scanned, and don't let them escape with a well-timed hyperspace jump.

'Captain, I've got something.' said one of the Imperial officers on the bridge.

'What is it?' asked the Captain.

'There are four people in the cargo bay of the sixth ship. They're more than the crew of the other ones.' said the officer.

'They must be the fugitives!' quoted the Captain satisfied. 'Activate the cannons, and shoot that ship into tiny pieces!'

'What the hell is that?' yelled the pilot of the Artemis. He saw, that the Star Destroyer is charging it's cannons, and targeting the freighter. 'Tell them to stop it!'

The co-pilot tried to make contact with the Imperial battleship. It was a pointless attempt. The Star Destroyer didn't answer to their call.

'What is that?' asked Hector.

The four fugitives heard the pilot's words in the cargo bay.

'I have a bad feeling abut this.' said Khal and Odalon at the same time.

'Get off this ship!' continued Khal.

All four of them jumped to their feet, and got out of the cargo bay. They ran to the escape pods. There were four of them, as the ship was designed for a crew of four.

The Star Destroyer started to shoot. Hundreds of laser bolts were shot in the direction of the Artemis, and they immediately caused heavy damage to the ship.

'What the...?' shouted the pilot, as he was running to the escape pods. He saw the four stowaways getting into the pods.

'Come!' shouted Odalon.

The captain and the co-pilot ran to the small spacecrafts, but suddenly the ship broke into two pieces and the vacuum pulled them out into the endless dark of the space. All of the air disappeared from the escape pods immediately, but these crafts had emergency oxygen store to replace the used oxygen, if someone stuck in a pod for a few days.

The door of the escape pods automatically closed, and oxygen flushed into the pods from the emergency tank. Odalon felt, he could breath again. His ears and head was aching, and he felt himself worse than ever.

In the space, there was no pressure, but in his veins there was. If he would have passed another second with the pod's door opened in the vacuum, he would have surely blown up. But fortunately when Cygnus Spaceworks designed the ship and the escape pod, they had thought about accidents like this, so the pod could close it's door automatically, when it's sensors indicated vacuum inside it.

Odalon gathered his power, and hit the launch button. The escape pod accelerated, and Odalon was pushed to the wall, but he didn't find it as bad as the vacuum, and it's effects. He was still feeling dizzy, he had felt sick, and saw flashing stars everywhere.

The Artemis blown up in flames, and only thousands of metal chips left there, flying in the space.

'Captain, I see three... no, four escape pods!' said the Imperial officer, sitting at the radar screen.

'Shoot 'em!' ordered the Captain. 'Leave no one alive!'

The escape pods were too small, even for the targeting system of the Star Destroyer. They needed much more shots to hit an escape pod, than a freighter like the Artemis was.

Thousands of laser bolts were shot in the direction of the pods, and the Star Destroyer itself followed them. The battleship was faster than the pods, and as the distance decreased, their shots became more precise.

'Got 'cha!' shouted one of the gunners. As he said that, one of the four escape pods burst out in flames, and disappeared from the radar screen.

The pods were closing to the atmosphere of Malastare. The Captain knew, they had to shoot them down before they reach it, because the Star Destroyer couldn't follow the pods to the atmosphere easily. A lot of preparations were needed before they could descend into the atmosphere of a planet with that gigantic ship.

Another escape pod exploded, and the gunner, who hit that, said: 'You guys owe me now!'

The gunners have made a gamble, when they started to shoot at the escape pods. The person, who shoot one, gets forty credits form every other gunner. So the lucky ones felt themselves very rich, when they hit the pods.

The two escape pods just reached the atmosphere, when the Star Destroyer got close enough to target them with it's computer. Laser bolts were shot at the pods, and one of the two remaining spacecrafts was hit. The blast only grazed the pod, but it caught fire, and left it's original course. It's computer was destroyed by the laser bolt, and it fell to the planet uncontrolled and it burned down in the atmosphere.

Odalon saw the burning pod, while it was falling through the clouds of Malastare. He was sitting in the only escape pod, which was still untouched by the Imperial lasers. He was sure, that the passenger of the falling pod was dead by now.

The Star Destroyer couldn't shoot Odalon. The Captain seemed to be really angry, because this fugitive will cause him a lot of problems. Even if it wasn't a Jedi, he had to send stormtroopers to the planet to find and kill the fugitive.

'Commander Dirk!' he yelled.

'Yes, sir!' saluted the clone Commander.

'Prepare every ground units and transports! You will head to the surface with your men, to find that fugitive!' ordered the Captain.

'At once, sir!' the Commander saluted again, and left the bridge.

'Captain, there are two other Star Destroyers arriving.' reported the officer, who controlled the radar.

'Inform them about the operation, and tell the Captains to send their troops down to the planet. There'll be no escape for that damned fool this time!' said the Captain.

.

Odalon climbed out of the escape pod. The spacecraft had it's landing system working, so he hit the ground without breaking himself. The pod wasn't able for another voyage, but it wasn't surprising. It was designed for only one short fly.

The Jedi felt terrible. He was sure, that Hector, Khal Seda and Rand Wogel were dead. And he was standing there, in the middle of nowhere, on a planet, where he had never been before. He saw desert all around him, with gigantic, mostly mushroom-shaped rocks. Everything had a reddish colour in the desert.

Odalon sat down on a rock, and thought about Hector, Ci Moss, Khal Seda, and the doctor. They've all died because of his fault. He was the one, who wanted to travel to Coruscant. He wanted to enter the Jedi Temple. Khal Seda was right. It was foolish to go to Coruscant.

He felt anger. Anger, pain and a bit of fear. He was angry to the Empire. Angry to the Emperor, Darth Vader and the droid-like creature, who killed Ci Moss. He was angry to Yoda, because he didn't tell him countless things, he should have known. He was angry to Organa, who didn't hold him back from leaving Polis Massa. And he was angry to himself, for everything he did.

He thought, he couldn't make a good decision. Since the order sixty-six he always chose the worst way. If Ci Moss and Hector hadn't helped and guided him, he would have definitely died. But now there were no friends to help him. He was alone in the rocky desert of Malastare.


	8. Home of poddracing

Odalon was walking in the desert for hours. The sun nearly descended under the horizon. He didn't really know, how far he was from the escape pod, but he felt tired, and knew, he must find a town or only a village or a cottage, where he could rest and eat something.

He saw a small canyon in front of him. The canyon was about twelve meters wide, and four meters deep. On the sides of the canyon, there were big rocks. Odalon was standing under one of these mushroom-shaped rocks, when he heard the weird, buzzing voice.

He looked around. He couldn't see, what gave the voice, but he hoped, it's not an Imperial transport, or a fighter. Then he noticed a cloud of dust, illuminated by the last rays of the sun. The dust was coming closer, and closer, while the sun disappeared from the sky, and only the stars, and the two moons were lighting.

A few seconds later Odalon could see, that some machines are coming towards him, and they raised the dust. The vehicles were flying just half meter above the ground, in the canyon. The pilots didn't notice Odalon. They just flew away, like they were racing each other.

Suddenly the answer came to Odalon's mind. He read about the podracing. Malastare was the planet, where the biggest podraces took place. Podracing was part of the local culture.

Odalon thought, if he walks in the direction, where the podracers came from, he will find the arena. And the arenas were built near the cities, so he could get into a civilised place.

The podracers flew away again, and again. Odalon counted the laps, and he quoted, that the racers had to survive nine deathly laps in the wastelands of Malastare. As the podracers flew next to him the ninth time, he noticed the arena.

The Jedi arrived to the giant arena, when the last spectators left it. He joined a group of Grans, who were heading to a vehicle, which seemed to be the part of the local public transport. Grans had the biggest population of all species, living on Malastare. They were not the natives on the planet, but they built their cities much earlier, than the real natives reached the eligible advance state to be interesting for the Grans.

Grans were brown-skinned, three-eyed creatures from the planet Kinyen. They had six ears, but two of them weren't used for hearing, but feeling the air movement, and help them to keep their balance. They never wore any kind of shoes, or gloves, because they had bigger feet and hand than they could easily cover. Many of the Grans didn't learn the Galactic Basic Standard language, because they think, they're one of the most populated species in the galaxy, so other creatures should orient to them. That's the reason, why the Grans' language was also official on Malastar, just like the GBS.

Odalon knew a few words on the Grans' language, and he hoped, it will be enough, if he had to communicate them. He was a little bit afraid of them, however he knew, Grans were peaceful.

'Can I come?' asked Odalon, when he arrived to the vehicle. He tried to say these words on the Grans' language.

'It's private.' said one of them, speaking GBS. 'But we'll take you to the town.'

'Thanks.' said Odalon, and he got on the vehicle.

'You can speak GBS, we all understand it.' said the Gran. 'Who are you?'

'I was a merchant.' lied Odalon. 'But my pilot broke my ship. I lost the whole cargo, and my spaceship. I landed a few miles away with my escape pod.'

'Is that true?' asked the Gran suspiciously.

Odalon once heard, that Grans could feel each other's emotions, and sometimes they feel other people's too. He concentrated on covering his feelings, and used the force to make his radiation as normal as he could. Then he said:

'Yes, of course. I'm looking for a ship, which can take me to Coruscant.'

'Maybe Kaws Moe could help you.' said the Gran. 'He'll fly to Coruscant in a few days. I'll ask him for you.'

'Thanks.' bowed Odalon.

'Go to the Red Moon. It's a cheap tavern, where you could stay for a few days. Kaws will be looking for you there.' said the Gran.

Odalon nodded. A few other Grans got on the vehicle, then it started it's engine, and flew to the nearest town. The name of the town was Colito.

When the vehicle arrived, some huge black clouds covered the town, and it started to rain. Odalon thanked for the transportation, and he ran to the nearest building. The Grans flew away in their bus-like vehicle, which had cover to protect the passengers from the rain.

The Jedi was standing under a gateway, and he couldn't see a thing, because the public lighting in Colito wasn't very good, and the darkness of the night and the rain made it much harder to see. Odalon tried to concentrate, to find the Red Moon, by using the force. But unfortunately he couldn't clear his mind.

He stood there, in the doorway for a couple of minutes, when he noticed a Dug, coming towards him.

'Excuse me, sir!' Odalon shouted. 'Can you tell me, where's the Red Moon?'

'What?' groaned the Dug. He seemed to be very old, and Odalon was afraid, that he couldn't hear his voice, or he couldn't remember the tavern's location.

'I asked, where is the Red Moon?' shouted Odalon, this time louder. It seemed, Odalon was wrong about the old Dug's memory.

'Well, that's a weird place.' said the Dug. 'I don't think you should go there.'

'Someone's waiting for me there. Just tell me the location!' said Odalon impatiently.

'Don't be so angry, stranger.! groaned the Dug. 'It's in that direction, about hundred meters far.'

As the Dug was speaking, Odalon thought, he could see an unclear white thing on the dark street, circa ten meters away. It looked like a ghost, but according to Odalon, it was much more like a stormtrooper.

'Thanks!' said Odalon quickly, and he ran at the direction, where the old Dug pointed.

He hoped, the trooper didn't notice him. He had a good chance for that, because he wore dark clothes, and visibility on that night was really bad, however the troopers wore helmet, so maybe they could see further than Odalon with his bare eyes.

He ran along the streets, and he kept his eyes open. He wanted to notice everyone on the streets, before they could see him. He was sure, that the stormtroopers were looking for him. Or maybe he was paranoid? It doesn't matter. He didn't have any weapon, so if there were stormtroopers in Colito, his only chance to survive was hiding.

The streets were covered with cobble, which made him a bit harder to run. The cobbles were more slippery, when wet, and there were huge gaps between them. If Odalon would have taken a bad step, he would easily twisted or broke his ankle.

But fortunately he didn't, and he arrived to the Red Moon successfully. He entered the tavern, and everyone immediately turned to him. He thought, he was so careless. He had luck, that there were no stormtroopers in the tavern, but if there would be any of them in there, he would have been killed by now.

There were circa twenty guests in the tavern. They were drinking, mostly beer, and they were from various parts of the galaxy. There were local Grans, Dugs and humans, but Odalon could see a Gamorrean, two Twi'leks, a Rodian, a Zygerrian and a Gossam. They looked Odalon up and down, then the continued their drinks.

The tavern was not very spacious. It was a bit dark, because there were just a few lights on the walls. It was in bad condition, but not too bad to come in for a drink or stay here for a night.

Odalon walked to the bartender, who was also a Gran, and said:

'I wish to stay here for a few days.'

'I've got some rooms upstairs.' replied the bartender.

'Good.' said Odalon. 'I take one of them.'

The bartender gave a key-card to the Jedi, which allowed him to enter his room. The room was on the first floor, and it's window looked out on the street, in front of the Red Moon. Odalon was really satisfied with the room, because he could see everyone, who entered the tavern, or left it.

Odalon put the key-card into his pocket, and he ordered a beer. He got it, and sat on a chair, in the corner. He just brought that beer, because he didn't want to make a stir. And he hoped, it will help him to forget his feelings, which were whirling in his mind since the others died in the escape pods.

He lost in his thoughts, as he was sitting there, drinking his beer, and he didn't notice, that the Zygerrian came to his table. He just saw the man, when he stepped in front of him, and sat down on the chair, opposite to Odalon. The Jedi cursed his carelessness again, because he should have kept his eyes open all the time. He put his beer on the table, and looked at the Zygerrian.

The Zygerrian's size was about a normal human's size. He had dark, brown hair and dark green eyes. He seemed to be much older, than he really was, because of the battle scars and wrinkles on his face. He wore a worn-out, dark grey coat, black trousers, with many pockets, a belt, in which he kept a blaster, and big black boots.

'Hello!' Odalon said finally.

'I wanna speak with you!' hissed the Zygerrian.

'Who are you?' asked Odalon.

'Not here, and not now. I'll be waiting for you in your room.' the alien whispered. Then he stood up, and left the tavern, through the main entrance.

Odalon wanted to jump to his feet, and go to his room at once, but he thought, it would be eye-catching, if he left just as the Zygerrian did.

He drank his beer slowly, while he tried to compose his thoughts. A few minutes later he paid the bartender, and walked to the stairs. He climbed up to the first floor, sought his room, and got inside. He wasn't surprised, when he found the Zygerrian sitting on a chair, next to the window, with a blaster in his hand.

'Good.' nodded the Zygerrian. 'You've waited long enough. You're smarter than I thought.'

Odalon didn't answer. He closed the door behind him, and sat on the bed.

'Why the Imperials are looking for you?' asked the Zygerrian.

'What are you talking about?' asked Odalon.

'Don't try to fool me!' groaned the Zygerrian. 'Thirty stormtroopers arrived to the town a few minutes ago. They're looking for something. Or someone...'

'I killed a Senator.' lied Odalon.

'Which one?' asked the Zygerrian. For the first time, the Jedi saw excitement and surprise in his eyes, but only for a short moment.

'Ainlee Teem.' said Odalon. He was the Senator of Malastare, and the Jedi felt unlikely fortunate to remember his name.

'Who entrusted you?' asked the alien immediately.

This time the Zygerrian couldn't cover his excitement. Odalon noticed that, and he knew, he could get the upper hand in their conversation. He immediately jumped on his feet, and pulled the blaster of the Zygerrian towards himself with the force.

'I'm the one asking questions now!' he said confidently.

But the Zygerrian just burst into laughter. Although the Jedi pointed the blaster at his head, he was laughing on a deep voice.

'What is it?' asked Odalon, while he lost his confidence. He didn't expect this.

'What a fool you are!' groaned the Zygerrian.

'I'll shoot you!' Odalon threatened the alien.

'No way.' said the Zygerrian.

'What are you talking about?' asked Odalon confused.

'You're a Jedi. You won't kill me.'

The Zygerrian was smiling in a strange, freaky way.

'So, would you be so kind to give me that blaster?' he asked, and he reached for the weapon.

Odalon sat back on the bed. He just realised, that he gave his identity as a Jedi away, when he used the force to get the blaster. He must be much more careful next time. If there will be next time!

'My name is Kwharxser Moons.' said the Zygerrian. 'But call me Ghoul. It's easier.'

'I'm Odalon. What do you want from me?' asked Odalon.

'You're a Jedi, however not a very smart one.' said Ghoul. 'You could help me to escape from the Imperials.'

'Are they looking for you?' questioned the Jedi.

'Not only.' groaned Ghoul. 'A Jedi's always a bigger prey than a bounty hunter.'

'Are you a bounty hunter?' asked Odalon.

'Yes. I came to this planet to kill Ainlee Teem.' he laughed, and continued: 'For a short moment I believed, you're also a bounty hunter. I almost shoot you, cuz' I thought you lured me into this trap.'

'What trap?'

'I was told to kill the Senator of Malastare. I came here, but someone outran me. I failed, the Senator survived, and the guards almost killed me. They're looking for me in the Capital, so I left the city.' explained the Zygerrian.

'I see.' nodded Odalon. 'What's your plan to escape?'

'We must get to my ship, at the space-port.' said Ghoul. 'It's in the Capital, so it won't be easy. But these stormtroopers gave me an idea.'

'What is it?' asked the Jedi.

'Wait here, till I come back!' groaned Ghoul. 'Shoot anyone who enters, but me!'

Ghoul threw his blaster to Odalon, then he opened the window, and jumped out of the room. Odalon stepped to the window, and looked out to the dark street. He didn't see the bounty hunter in the heavy rain. He turned the window in, and left only a small gap to make it easy for Ghoul to enter, if he comes back through the window.

Odalon sat on a chair, and waited. He was holding the blaster in his hand, looking at the door. He heard the rapping voice of the rain from outside. The room was dark, and the Jedi soon fell asleep.


	9. It is hard to be a stormtrooper

He had a sleepless dream. He didn't see or hear his surroundings, but he wasn't sleeping as much as a normal person. He felt the force flowing through his mind, and he saw a short, misty force vision. Only some shades appeared in his vision, and he could catch only a couple of words on Gran language...

Suddenly he opened his eyes. A loud, strange voice woke him up. Something hit the window.

Odalon jumped to his feet, and looked at the window. He raised his blaster, and stepped to it. He opened the window, and looked down to the street. He wasn't surprised when he saw Ghoul standing next to the tavern.

'Come!' the bounty hunter said.

Odalon thought about his force vision. He remembered the words of the Grans, who transported him to the town. He thought, it would be much easier to stay here, and wait for Kaws Moe, who will take him to somewhere else.

'I have an idea!' said Odalon.

'No time!' hissed the Zygerrian. 'Come or die!'

Odalon didn't know, what Ghoul was talking about. He still thought, that the Gran's help would be more comfortable, more simple, and less risky. But finally he jumped out to the street through the window.

As he jumped, he heard something behind him. Odalon fell from the window to the cobbled street, and he used the force to attenuate the impaction. He heard a blaster's voice from the room.

Two stormtroopers stepped into the Jedi's room, and shot at the leaving Odalon. They missed the target, and while they ran to the window, the Jedi and the bounty hunter disappeared from the street.

'That was close.' said Odalon, when they were hiding in a small, deserted alley. 'Thanks.'

'C'mon!' groaned Ghoul. 'I've killed two stormtroopers. We'll put on their armour.'

'Wait!' said Odalon. 'I have another plan.'

'What is it?' asked the Zygerrian.

'We should wait at the Red Moon. A Gran, named Kaws Moe will come to take us with him on his ship.' said Odalon.

'You're such an idiot!' swore Ghoul. 'Those troopers saw you in the tavern. They won't let you wait there.'

Odalon realised, that the bounty hunter was right. They couldn't return to the Red Moon. The stormtroopers are already looking for them. They won't have any chance to escape, if they don't act fast.

'C'mon!' groaned the bounty hunter.

They left the alley, crossed some streets, and got into an open cellar. Ghoul closed the door behind them, and lit a small lamp on the wall. The cellar was smaller, than Odalon expected. There were three wooden crates in the corner, some garbage in the opposite side of the cellar, and two dead stormtroopers in the middle.

'Take those armours!' Ghoul pointed at the troopers.

The Jedi and the bounty hunter pulled the armours down from the dead troopers, and they put them on their bodies. The helmet didn't suit to Ghoul's head, because of the two small horns on his jaw. But the Zygerrian pulled a small energy-knife, and cut a piece of the helmet from it's inner side. This way, he could put it on his head, and a spectator couldn't notice the difference. Then they hid the dead bodies into the crates, and left the cellar.

Just as they stepped out of the small room, with the troopers' blasters in their hands four stormtroopers appeared in front of them.

'No one's inside there.' reported Ghoul immediately.

'We didn't find them either.' said one of the troopers. 'They must be somewhere around here!'

They continued their way on the street. Odalon and Ghoul noticed, that the stormtrooper's armour keeps the rain outside. They didn't feel the wet drops falling on them, just heard and saw them.

'You go that way!' said one of the stormtroopers. Odalon just noticed, that the trooper was wearing a distinguishing sign on his shoulder. He must have been the leader. The trooper pointed on Odalon, Ghoul and a third soldier.

'Yes, sir!' replied Ghoul.

The three other troopers continued their way along the street. Odalon, Ghoul and the third trooper had to search for the fugitives on a smaller alley, leading to the outskirts.

They looked into every hole, pretending, that they were searching for the escaped Jedi. They reached a small square, where three trees were standing between the houses. As they walked to the middle of the square to see, where someone could hide here, Ghoul suddenly raised his blaster and shot the stormtrooper.

The voice of the shot surprised Odalon. He didn't expect this. For a short second he thought, that the stormtrooper killed Ghoul, and he raised his blaster too. But Ghoul didn't shoot at Odalon, as the Jedi expected, but blasted two of the trees, a wall and a small speeder, staying in front of a doorway.

'Take cover!' shouted Ghoul, and he jumped behind a tree.

Odalon ran to a house, and hide in the doorway. He saw, the bounty hunter was still shooting at the horizon. Then Ghoul shot one bolt at Odalon, which crashed into the wall, close to the Jedi. Odalon raised his blaster to respond the fire, but he saw, Ghoul was shooting at nowhere again. Then the Zygerrian stopped shooting, and lowered his blaster.

Odalon saw stormtroopes coming towards them. They were moving close to the wall, always behind cover, and suddenly the Jedi realised, why Ghoul did what he did.

The bounty hunter stepped out of his shelter, and ran to the dead stormtrooper. He kneed down next to him, and it seemed, he's inspecting the injury of the trooper.

Odalon also left the doorway, and walked to the middle of the square. As he could see, more than ten stormtroopers were already there. He noticed the one, who wore the sign on his shoulder, and he stepped to him.

'They've escaped with a speeder.' he reported.

Ghoul suddenly raised his head, and Odalon felt, that the Zygerrian became very nervous for a second. Then he stood up, and said:

'He's dead.'

'Where did they left?' asked the trooper.

'That way.' said Ghoul immediately, pointing to a narrow alley, which led out of the square to a great meadow next to the town.

'They're heading to Pixelito!' said another trooper suddenly.

Odalon felt, that Ghoul was satisfied with the situation. The Zygerrian wanted to make the Imperials think, that the fugitives are heading to the Capital. This way they could get to the Capital's space-port with the Imperials, who will think, that they are pursuing the fugitives.

'Wait a minute!' groaned the stormtrooper officer. 'I thought we're looking for only one fugitive.'

'They were two.' said Ghoul. 'One was holding a blaster, and the other used a lightsaber.'

'So the Jedi's still alive.' said the trooper. 'I report Commander Dirk. Prepare the transport! We'll head to Pixelito immediately.'

The trooper turned around, and headed to a dark street. Odalon and Ghoul left there, with the other troopers. They came there, and asked what happened. Ghoul told them the story of the battle, the death of his companion, and the escape of the two fugitives. He also pointed out, that the fugitives shot the only one speeder on the square, to prevent the Imperials from chasing them.

Then they raised the dead body of the clone, and carried him back to the transport ship, standing next to Colito. There they built a bonfire, and cindered the dead trooper. They used a special kind of oil to light up the fire in the heavy rain.

Then the stormtrooper, who had the distinguishing sign, returned to the ship. Ghoul found a short text in the transport ship's computer about Imperial officers, and he learned, that the stormtrooper is a Sergeant.

The transport rose from the ground, and flew to the Capital city of Malastare. Odalon was looking out through the window, and he saw, that they left the clouds behind, and the light of the stars and moons illuminated the meadows of Malastare. It was much nicer than the desert, where the podrace took place.

The journey lasted for an hour. Pixelito was the gigantic capital city of Malastare. It was surrounded by a forest. Malastare was a special planet, because of the various terrain types on it's surface. There were deserts, meadows, oceans, forests, mountains and swamps all over the planet.

Pixelito was obviously the most developed city on Malastare. There were giant sky-scrapers everywhere in the city, like on Coruscant. All of the important offices were located in Pixelito. The city was also the cultural centre of the planet. And the home of the biggest podraces.

The Vinta Harvest Classic was the most famous podrace all over the galaxy. Racers from every systems signed for the competition, but during the last years the local government had problems with organising the race, because of the Clone Wars. But it seemed, this year they will observe it in a few days.

The transport ship landed in the space-port of Pixelito. Ghoul and Odalon saw hundreds of stormtroopers all around the space-port. On Coruscant they couldn't block the whole space traffic of the planet, but on a less important planet, like Malastare they could. So no one could leave the surface of Malastare now, but the Imperials. It seemed to be impossible for the two fugitives to escape with Ghoul's spaceship.

'Sergeant!' shouted someone, just as the stormtroopers left the transport.

'Yes, Commander!' the Sergeant saluted to the arriving Imperial Commander. He was not a clone, but a tall, dark-skinned, black-haired, dead-looking man, with strong jaws. He looked like a perfect soldier.

'No one arrived to the city yet. We didn't saw any speeders on the radar.' said the Commander. 'You, and your group will now go for a rest, but in the morning you'll join the guards at the southern boarder of the city.'

'Yes, sir!' said the Sergeant, and he saluted again, while the Commander walked away.

'Follow me!' ordered another officer, and the Sergeant, with his men followed the officer, who led them to the barracks, next to the space-port.

Odalon and Ghoul followed the troopers into the barracks, where they had to descend to the third level under the ground. With that many stormtroopers on the planet, the accommodation wasn't really good. The locals could hardly make enough space in the barracks for the soldiers.

'Two men to each room!' shouted the Sergeant. 'Breakfast in the canteen at seven in the morning.'

The stormtroopers got into the rooms. Odalon and Ghoul managed to stick together, and they got into a rally small room, where were two beds, one over the other.

'I hate bunk beds!' groaned Odalon, when he shut the door behind him.

'Never mind!' said Ghoul, and he threw his helmet on the upper bed. 'It's much better without that thing.'

Odalon also removed his helmet, and sat on the lower bed. In the room, there was a table, and two chairs next to it, but nothing else. Ghoul sat on one of these chairs. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts, so Odalon didn't speak a word. He just laid on his bed, and looked at the cellar.

The Jedi heard sounds from the corridor, and suddenly he had a bad feeling. He stood up, and reached for his blaster. Ghoul noticed it, and he also jumped to his feet. He saw, his blaster was laying on his bed, close to his helmet. He quickly put the helmet on, to cover his Zygerrian face, and grabbed the blaster.

The door opened up, and the Sergeant entered the small room. He was holding a couple of boxes. He noticed the two troopers, holding their blasters.

'Relax, boys!' he laughed. 'The war's over. You mustn't have your guns with you all the time.'

He put one of the boxes to the table.

'Dinner.' he said, pointing at the box. 'I could get only this muck, but it's better than nothing.'

The Sergeant turned to the corridor, but he stopped in the door, and looked at the two troopers again.

'Don't you wanna thank me that?' he asked.

'Thanks, sir!' said Odalon at once.

'I bet you're not clones.' said the Sergeant. 'I've never seen a trooper like you guys before. And you can take that helmet off.'

'Ok.' said Ghoul, and he sat on a chair, and raised his hands to the helmet. He tried to take it off as slow as he could, hoping, that the Sergeant leaves before he reveals his face.

'What's your name?' the Sergeant asked.

'Ghoul.' replied the Zygerrian.

'Shadow.' said Odalon.

'You must be new in my group.' said the Sergeant. 'Have a nice day!'

The trooper left the room, and Odalon closed the door behind him. Ghoul removed his helmet again, and he threw it on the floor relieved.

'For a second I thought he'll unveil us.' he said.

'How can we get outta here now?' asked Odalon.

He felt the situation more hopeless with every minute. They were in the middle of a city, full of Imperials, who were guarding the space-port so hard, that no ship could leave.

'I'll figure out something.' said Ghoul. 'But now, let's see this "muck"!'

He opened the box. Some kind of local food was in it, but none of them could identify it. The food was stinky, and it had a disgusting look, but as Ghoul tasted it, he found, it was better than it lookd like.

After they ate the dinner, they were sitting on the chairs, and thinking about the escape. Ghoul's ship, which had a Zygerrian name, that meant "Soul Hunter" in the GBS, was heavily guarded like all other ships in the space-port.

They knew, there were Star Destroyers orbiting the planet, so if they could get to the ship, and leave the space-port, they would be shot in the space by the battleships.

'I have an idea.' said Ghoul. 'If we could get to the Soul Hunter, and launch it, the Imperials would shoot it over the planet.'

'And they would leave, because they'll think, we're dead.' finished Odalon. 'Sounds good!'

'Yeah.' nodded Ghoul. 'But we must get to the ship, and make it leave the space-port, without being spotted by the Imperials. It's a bit harder, than I hoped.'

'The longer we wait, the worse chances we have.' said Odalon. 'We can't keep up with this disguise for long.'

'You're right.' nodded Ghoul. 'And tomorrow we'll be moved to the southern part of the city. That's too far from the space-port. We must act now.'

'Let's go!' said Odalon, and he reached for his helmet.

'We must be very careful!' groaned the bounty hunter. 'They're more than I expected.'

The two of them put on their helmets, and left the room. They were holding their blasters ready in their hands. They walked up, to the entrance of the barracks, where two stormtroopers were standing. One of them was telling a joke to the other:

'The clone, and the droid went into a pub. The bartender shouts at them: "Hey! We don't serve the likes of you!" the clone asks "Me?", then the bartender "I mean the droid. You're regular here." Then the clone says surprised: "But I'm here for the first time."

The other pretended to be laughing.

Odalon and Ghoul arrived to the two troopers, who looked at them, and the first one said:

'Finally! Here's the relay.'

The troopers went into the barracks, and left Odalon and Ghoul standing there in the doorway.

'Seems, they're changing guards now.' said Ghoul. 'Maybe we can get closer to the ship, while they're changing.

It was a risky plan. They needed a perfect timing, to stay unspotted. And even taking advantage of the relay, they couldn't get to the Soul Hunter, without being seen by the security cameras. Instead, they got into the control tower of the space-port.

The tower was guarded by stormtroopers, but the two at the back door were easily convinced, that they're the relay. Inside the tower there were only a few Imperials. Four troopers guarded the control room, and there were only two officers inside, because without traffic they didn't have to run the tower as usually.

'Commander Dirk sent us.' said Ghoul to the four guards out of the control room.

'What is it?' asked a trooper.

'According to my order, it's not your business.' replied Ghoul.

The trooper growled angrily, but he let them inside the control room, and closed the door behind them. Odalon thought, that these Imperials were unbelievably naïve. They let two soldiers into the control room without even asking for their identification number, and let them inside unguarded with the officers and the controls and sensors of the space-port.

'It's your time, Jedi!' hissed Ghoul. 'Make them not to notice anything on the sensors!'

'What is it, men?' asked one of the officers. 'Anything happened?'

'Nothing happened.' said Odalon, while he looked into the officer's eyes. He concentrated as hard as he could, to manipulate the thoughts of the officer with the force. 'Nothing happens now, and nothing will happen in the next few minutes.'

'What?' asked the other officer, who was sitting in his chair, facing away from the stormtroopers.

Odalon felt, that the thoughts of the officer, which he tried to manipulate had changed. As the Jedi read his mind, he saw, that the officer didn't sense anything. He didn't hear any voices, didn't see a thing, and didn't smell any smells.

'Sit down there, and look at the screen!' ordered Odalon, still looking into the officer's eyes. The Imperial's mind changed again, and he sat in his chair, looked at a screen, but he still didn't sense anything.

'Now the other one!' hissed Ghoul.

'What's going on there?' asked the officer, and he turned to Odalon.

'Nothing.' said the Jedi, and he tried to reach the mind of the other man with the force.

The officer must have felt something, because he snapped at his head, and doubled up. Odalon concentrated on his victim's thoughts, and slowly he could make the officer to fall asleep. Odalon didn't want to do the same with this one, because these force-moves needed so much concentration, and he was too tired to repeat the manipulation.

Ghoul put the officer into his chair, and left them in the control room. As they stepped out on the corridor, the stormtrooper, who stopped them a few minutes ago, asked:

'What did you do?'

'We're taking a report to Commander Dirk.' replied Ghoul calmly. 'He requested it on a disk, because someone could monitor us, if we send it via airwaves'

'Who?' asked the trooper.

'The Jedi could be in the city.' said Ghoul on a low voice, acting his role perfectly. 'Few minutes ago we noticed a speeder near the city, but found no one inside it.'

'Sounds weird.' whispered the trooper. 'We'll be doing our best to guard the control room. No Jedi will get inside!'

'Commander Dirk will be satisfied.' said Ghoul.

The two fugitives left the corridor, but they could barely stand laughing.

At the back door of the tower they ran into two troopers, who just arrived to replace them as guards. Odalon and Ghoul thanked them for taking their place just in time, and they headed to the Soul Hunter.

Every security cameras sent their signal to the control tower of the space-port. As the two officers watching the cameras were out of work for few minutes, Odalon and Ghoul shouldn't worry about being spotted, if the recordings will never be inspected in the future. They acted like other patrolling stormtroopers, but when they reached the Soul Hunter, they suddenly disappeared.

The ship was standing in a roofless docking bay. From these docking bays a ship could take off faster, but it was more dangerous, because anybody could get to the spaceship.

Ghoul opened a secret slice gate, leading into the ship, so they could get inside without opening the main ramp. It would have been a bit eye-catching, if one of the ships opened it's ramp.

Ghoul stepped to the main computer of the ship, and started to set everything. Firstly he turned on a defensive system, which could cover the smaller energy signals of the ship, such as the computer's. This way he could use the computer without being spotted by the Imperials, but they shouldn't activate any other systems.

Ghoul set, that the ship will take off in three minutes, activate it's deflector shields, and gave fake signal of two humans aboard. When it leaves the atmosphere, it will charge it's hyperdrive, and makes the jump to light-speed in the direction of Turkana.

'Why Turkana?' asked Odalon.

'That was the first planet, which came to my mind.' replied Ghoul. 'Now, let's get off this ship!'

As he stood up from his seat, he quickly opened a small container under the control panel, and picked up the gadget, which was inside it. He removed the lower arm armour of his stormtrooper uniform, and attached the gadget to his wrist, like a watch. Then he replaced the armour over it.

They both got out of the ship through the secret slice gate, and headed back to the barracks. They just reached the building, and stood into the entrance as guards, when they saw the lights of the Soul Hunter's engine.

The ship slowly raised from the ground and flew away on the black, starry sky of Malastare, followed by a couple of laser bolts.

The ship flew higher and higher towards the space. The atmosphere of the planet was silent, and if there were anyone on the Soul Hunter, he wouldn't think that the ship is going to be destroyed in a few minutes.

But it did. A huge spaceship appeared in front of the Soul Hunter. It was a Venator-class Star Destroyer, called the Crimson Bird. The Captain ordered to shoot the small ship, which carried two humans. The cannons have been charged, and the countless laser bolts, shot by the Star Destroyer couldn't be stopped by the weak deflector shields of the small spacecraft.

The Soul Hunter burst out into flames, and destroyed in the space, high above Malastare.


	10. Pirate attack

'Sorry for your ship.' said Odalon.

'Just a vessel.' shrugged Ghoul. He seemed to be careless, but Odalon felt a tiny wave of emotion in him.

Most of the time, Ghoul covered his feelings really well, however he wasn't force-sensitive. Odalon thought, he could never read Ghoul's mind, or he could never manipulate him with the force, because Ghoul had much stronger mind, than most of the people, Odalon met. Probably stronger mind, than Odalon.

'We should get out of here.' Odalon whispered.

'It'd be a bit suspicious, if no one was guarding the door, which we should.' replied Ghoul. 'But we'll leave as soon as we can.'

A few minutes later a stormtrooper appeared behind them. He didn't wear his helmet, so they realised, he was the Sergeant, who took them here. He seemed to be tired, but not as careworn as sooner.

'Rob! Captain Lorne said we have new orders. Get the men aboard the S.D. in an hour!' an Imperial officer shouted from a corridor, where the Sergeant came from.

'Thanks.' nodded the Sergeant. The other officer disappeared on the corridor, and the Sergeant stepped to Odalon and Ghoul. 'We got the Jedi, and the other guy. The mission's over, but we have to get to the Star Destroyer in an hour.'

'Yes, Sergeant.' saluted Ghoul.

'Call the others, and send them to the transport in docking bay 37!' commanded the Sergeant.

'At once, sir.' Ghoul saluted again, and he went to wake the whole group of stormtroopers up. Odalon followed him, while the Sergeant left for the transport.

When Odalon and Ghoul finished with the rooms, they headed to the entrance of the barracks. They saw hundreds of stormtroopers all over the space-port. Everyone was heading to his transport. Ghoul guessed, that three or four Star Destroyers were cruising over the planet.

The other stormtroopers of their group walked towards docking bay 37. Odalon and Ghoul left to the end of the row, and they slipped off the team, when they were close to one of the bigger hangars. The two of them sneaked behind the hangar, but as they got out of shelter, they found themselves in the middle of another stormtrooper group.

'This way!' shouted an Imperial officer.

'We don't belong to this group.' said Ghoul quickly.

'Who do you belong to?' asked the officer, and he waved to his troopers to continue their way to their transport.

'Sergeant Rob.' answered Ghoul with less confidence, than he spoke to the other Imperials before.

'He's from the Crimson?' asked the officer, but he didn't wait for the answer. 'The transports of that Star Destroyer are that way.'

The officer pointed to the hangar, behind which Odalon and Ghoul sneaked a few seconds ago.

'Wait a minute!' said the officer, and he waved his hand to stop a speeder, coming towards him.

'What is it, sir?' asked the driver, who seemed to be a clone.

'Do you remember, where your transport is?' asked the officer from Odalon and Ghoul.

'Docking bay 37.' replied Odalon.

'Take them there!' ordered the officer.

Odalon and Ghoul got into the speeder, and let the driver to take them to the docking bay, where Sergeant Rob's stormtroopers were getting inside the transport.

'Here we are.' said the clone.

'Thanks.' nodded Ghoul.

The speeder flew away. The Jedi and the bounty hunter couldn't do anything, but boarding the transport, and waiting for the short journey to the Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyer, which was called the Crimson Bird. Odalon knew, it was once the cruiser, he, and his master used. He knew Captain Lorne, and he was afraid of being recognised by the Captain.

The transport left the hangar, and headed to the space. The surface of Malastare, with the giant city of Pixelito got further with every second. Odalon was looking out through the window, and he saw at least three Imperial Star Destroyers in front of them.

Other transports were flying through the space, towards the battleships. They neared the hangar one after the other, and landed aboard the Imperial ships. Countless clone units (and a few other human soldiers) filled every Star Destroyers, and Odalon started to feel hopeless. Once he could get off one of these ships, moreover, he could get off this particular ship, but he couldn't hope to repeat it.

They finally landed in the main hangar of the Venator-class Star Destroyer, and left the small transport. Sergeant Rob led them to their temporary quarters, and went to join the other officers on the command bridge, listening to the Captain's briefing.

The stormtroopers were waiting for the Sergeant in smaller rooms. Eight of them were placed together into each room. Most of them immediately removed their armour, and laid on the beds, because they were still tired. They couldn't sleep much at night.

Odalon and Ghoul didn't remove their helmets. Fortunately, they could get out of the room, where were six other stormtroopers, and they started to patrol on the corridors, where they saw many other troopers and officers.

'I've fought on this ship in the war.' Odalon said.

'Don't worry.' Ghoul said. 'They won't recognise you.'

For a short moment, Odalon had the feeling, that Ghoul could read his mind, but then he chased the thought away.

When the briefing finished on the bridge, the Star Destroyer jumped to light-speed. Sergeant Rob soon returned to his troopers, and ordered them to gather in a bigger room.

'We're heading to the Raioballo sector, to deal with some pirates. They're raiding Imperial ships in that sector, and the Senate wants them to be eliminated.' he said.

Odalon and Ghoul returned to the corridors, and continued to patrol. They were walking near the windows of the ship to keep their eyes on the surroundings. It took a few hours to reach the Raioballo sector, and until that, they could only see the hyperspace out there. Then, the starry space turned up, when the Star Destroyer left hyperspace.

'We must get off this ship somehow.' said Odalon. 'The more time we're passing here raises the chance of being recognised.'

'Right, but...' Ghoul started to speak, but suddenly an explosion shook the ship.

Odalon and Ghoul jumped to the window immediately, and they saw a big, armed spaceship outside in the space. The ship was about two hundred meters long, and it was armed more, than Odalon thought at the first sight.

'Pirates!' shouted someone on the Star Destroyer.

The pirate ship surprised the Imperials, so they could get the upper hand first. The pirates started to shoot as soon as the Crimson Bird broke out of hyperspace, so they could damage the Star Destroyer before it could activate it's deflector shields.

Suddenly another pirate ship turned up next to the Imperial battleship. It came from the hyperspace, and opened fire just as it arrived.

'Attention! It's the Captain speaking. Two pirate ships attacked the Crimson Bird. Every star-fighter pilots go to the hangar, and board their ships! The squadron leaders will tell you the further information.' the Captain's voice was audible all over the ship through the loudspeakers.

'We could take advantage of this attack.' said Ghoul. 'Everyone's confused. We can get off the ship easily.'

'But they could track us with their radar!' objected Odalon. 'We can't escape with the fighters or the transports, because they don't have hyperdrive.'

'No, we can't.' Ghoul nodded.

'Where could we get a ship, which is able to jump to light-speed?' cried Odalon.

The answer came to his mind like a lightning strike, as he looked out through the window.

'The pirate ships!'

The two of them got to the pilots' lockers, and stole two helmets. Ghoul said, it's enough to get to the fighters without any trouble, and in the ships, it's also not necessary to wear proper spacesuit. And he was right. They got down into the hangar with no problems.

Most of the fighters were already taken by the pilots. They were leaving the hangar of the Crimson Bird, and heading to the pirate ships. There was no two-man fighter in the hangar. But Ghoul seemed to be satisfied with two smaller fighters, which he found.

'These are good enough.' he said, and climbed on one of them.

'What should we do?' asked Odalon, while he climbed on the other fighter.

'We can't land in their hangar before shooting their shield generators. So that's our first target. Than just fly into the hangar, and land the ship!' shouted Ghoul.

'But I'm not a good pilot at all.' said Odalon.

'You're better than the average.' shouted Ghoul.

'Yeah, but not better than these specially trained pilots.' Odalon pointed at a couple of clone pilots.

'Don't worry! Just put maximum energy on the engines! Not just the main engines, but the side, and manoeuvring ones too! Fly fast, and always follow me!' instructed Ghoul.

'I'll try.' said Odalon.

'One more thing!' shouted Ghoul. 'Turn off your laser cannons, and turn on the ions! And set my vessel as your squadron leader, so I can transmit my computer's target to your ship!'

'Ok.' nodded Odalon. 'I hope, you know what you're doing.'

'I've done worse things before.' smiled Ghoul. 'Just try not to communicate through the radio, because I don't know how to hide our transmissions from the other fighters!' then Ghoul sat into his ship.

Odalon also sat into his seat, and activated the fighter. He saw, that Ghoul has already took off, so he quickly set the bounty hunter's ship to his squadron leader. Than he changed to ion cannons, and flew after Ghoul.

The two star-fighters left the hangar of the Crimson Bird, and joined to the fighting ships in the space. Odalon saw, there was no other Star Destroyer here, but the Crimson Bird. Maybe the Imperials thought, it will be enough to deal with the pirates. They seemed to be right, however the Imperial battleship had some serious damages, but it's deflector shields were now working correctly.

The pirate ships tried to move faster, and stay far from the Star Destroyer. They didn't get too much hits, because the Crimson Bird's targeting system wasn't working correctly since the first explosions. And obviously the manual targeting was less precise than the computer's targeting system.

'Follow me to the left one!' said Ghoul into his communicator.

Odalon was flying behind Ghoul's fighter, as close as he could, and as he durst. They neared the pirate ship, and it seemed, that Ghoul is scanning it, however, this star-fighter wasn't capable of scanning other ships. The designers didn't built the equipment into the fighter, because it was created for short and quick space battles.

Then Ghoul had a wide turn, and he got further from the pirate ship. Odalon followed him like a shadow. It was much easier to control a fighter, when he put more energy on the engines. He could take the turns, even the narrow ones, without overloading the ship's stabilizers.

One of the pirate ship's gunners spotted the two fighters, which flew so close, and tried to shoot them. He missed the two small Imperial ships, but he still followed them with his cross-hairs, and opened fire, as soon as they got in range again.

'Let's make a run for the shield generator!' shouted Ghoul, and he turned to the pirate ship.

Odalon followed him, and on his targeting computer soon appeared the shield generator of the pirate ship. It was located near the middle of the ship, over the left wing, but it was close to two laser cannons.

As Ghoul and Odalon flew towards the shield generator, three of the enemy cannons shot at them simultaneously. Odalon tried to manoeuvre, and he could avoid the laser bolts. Ghoul survived the run too, but he tried to fly as close to the enemy ship, as he could, because the cannons couldn't reach him there.

Odalon saw, that according to the targeting system, the shield generator was in range. The Jedi had one more look at the cannon's control panel, and checked, that they were set to ion bolts. Then he pulled the trigger, and the bright ion shots flew in the direction of the shield generator.

'Got it!' shouted Ghoul, as he navigated his fighter further from the pirate ship. 'Head to the hangar!'

Odalon followed the bounty hunter, but this time they didn't go further that hundred meters. They took a very narrow turn, and headed to the hangar. Some cannons were still shooting at them, and a laser bolt hit Odalon's wing.

'Don't worry! We're landing! Brake!' shouted Ghoul.

Odalon tried to brake, as hard as he could, but it wasn't enough. He saw, his ship got through the narrow energy field, which didn't let the air of the hangar to disappear into the space. Then his fighter's other wing crashed into the wall, and the whole ship turned to it's side. It slid through the hangar, and impacted into the wall, opposite to the hangar's entrance.

The power of the impaction pushed the ship on it's belly again. The fighter was burning on several points, and Odalon could hardly breath again. He removed his safety belts, and pushed the booby-hatch open over his head. He felt the heat of the flames, but as he tried to climb out of the small cockpit, a laser blast almost hit his head.

He looked at the direction, where the shot came from, and saw a man through the flames, standing in the hangar, holding a blaster.

Odalon reached for his own blaster, and shot at the man. He couldn't target his enemy, because he had to fight with the flames, dancing in front of his eyes. He was sure, he missed the guy. He knew, he had to get out of there quickly, of he will be fried.

Odalon gathered his energy, and jumped out of the burning ship, by using the force. He jumped to the man with the blaster, and it seemed, that he surprised his enemy, who forgot to shoot.

They both fell to the floor of the hangar, and they rolled over each other. Both of them tried to get the upper hand, and finally Odalon could knee on his enemy's chest. Now, for a short moment he saw the pirate's face. It wasn't a human, but some kind of alien, which had big, sharp teeth, brown skin, dark eyes, deep in his head, and he had no nose, just two holes on the middle of his face.

Odalon raised his hand to strike the pirate. The alien was faster, and drew his small power-knife. The power-knife was a really dangerous tool. It was similar to the lightsaber, but it's blade was invisible. It had a grip, which could be held by one hand, and a fifteen or twenty centimetres long blade, which could cut most of the known materials.

Odalon released the pirate, and jumped backwards, as he saw the power-knife. The pirate tried to throw the knife at Odalon, and the Jedi was sure, he won't miss the target. The pirate raised his hand, but he could never throw the power-knife.

A laser blast impacted directly into the back of his head. The blast tore his head off, and his headless body fell to the floor.

'Thanks.' groaned Odalon to Ghoul, who was standing behind the dead pirate.

'Let's move! We haven't got much time before they blow up this ship!' shouted the bounty hunter.

They left the hangar, but as they stepped on the first corridor, Ghoul stopped. Odalon just realised, that his companion stopped after a few seconds.

'What is it?' asked the Jedi.

'It's a computer terminal.' replied the Zygerrian. 'Just as I'm looking for.'

'You don't have an astro-droid! You can't attach to that thing!' cried Odalon impatiently.

'Yes I can.' said Ghoul, and he threw the armour from his lower hand away, revealing the small gadget, which he put on his arm on the Soul Hunter.

'What the...?' started Odalon. He couldn't believe, what was happening in front of his eyes.

Ghoul's gadget stock out a small clip, which was similar to an astro-droid's. He attached the clip to the computer terminal, and pushed some buttons on his gadget.

'There's an astro-droid built in that gadget?' asked Odalon surprised.

'No.' replied Ghoul. 'I can do only a few things with this. But that's enough here.'

'What are you talking about?' asked Odalon, when the bounty hunter pulled the clip out of the terminal. 'What did you do?'

'I've just reset the whole computer system of the ship,' said Ghoul. 'Including the hyperdrive, so if it has coordinates, it will make the jump to light-speed, as soon as it's charged. And I think, they're careless enough to leave the coordinates of the last hyperspace jump in the computer.'

Suddenly an explosion shook the ship, and both of them leant to the wall.

'That sounds bad.' groaned Odalon.

'Let's head to the escape pods!' commanded Ghoul. 'We must get off this ship as soon as we get to the destination, where the hyperdrive will take us!'

'Wait!' shouted Odalon. 'That explosion sounded, like the Imperials holed the ship!'

Ghoul nodded.

'If we do a hyperspace jump with a hull damaged ship, without shields, we'll be dead! The whole craft will fall apart!' cried the Jedi.

'It won't.' said the Zygerrian. 'I reset the whole computer system, remember? The shield generator too. So, they can be weak, but we have deflector shields now. Remember? We didn't blow up the generator, just disabled it with the ion cannons.'

Just as Ghoul finished the sentence, the pirate ship suddenly jumped to light-speed.

Odalon whistled appreciatively, and followed Ghoul to the escape pods. That was a really dangerous escape, but they were still alive.

The journey on light-speed didn't last long. As soon as the pirate ship broke out of hyperspace, over the planet Dantooine, two small escape pods left the ship, and descended to the planet, unnoticed by the pirates.


	11. Children of Dantooine

Odalon looked out to the space, through the window of his escape pod. Suddenly he felt very tired. He slept only a few hours since he arrived to Coruscant, and entered the Jedi Temple. So many things had happened in this short period of time. He fought a Sith warrior-machine, lost his friend, Ci Moss, met another Jedi, and escaped from the Imperials in a cargo ship. Then he sat into an escape pod, just like now, and he saw Khal Seda, Hector Soron and Rand Wogel die over the planet Malastare. He was the only survivor of the Imperials' attack. Later he met this Ghoul, and they disguised themselves as stormtroopers to evade the Imperials. They had to destroy Ghoul's ship to make the Imperials think, they're dead. But then they couldn't escape fast enough, and found themselves on a Star Destroyer, which was attacked by pirates. They tried a reckless action to make one of the pirate ships jump to light-speed, and unbelievably they succeeded.

And now Odalon was sitting in the escape pod, and flying towards the surface of Dantooine. He saw the small, bright point on the starry, black sky, which was certainly the pirates' heavily damaged ship.

The Jedi had a look at the escape pod's computer screen, to check, that everything is proper for the landing. The escape pod worked correctly.

Outside the spacecraft slowly appeared the giant, brown and green coloured ball, the planet of Dantooine. But before Odalon could inspect the planet, his eyes caught a space station, slowly orbiting the planet.

The space station had the size of a half Star Destroyer. It was slowly spinning around it's centreline, to create a gravity field inside. It seemed to be older than a thousand years, because no one built any space station, which created gravity like this. It was simple physics. The centrifugal force pushed everything on the station further from the centreline, so people could walk on the wall. Obviously the designers built the station's rooms and corridors like they were rotated by ninety degrees to match them to the gravity field.

Odalon thought, that the station remained here from the old times of the Republic. He didn't expected, that any of those old space stations were still working, and someone was still using it. But it seemed, that the pirates used it as their base. The pirate ship got close to the station, to attach to it's sluice gate.

The escape pod got too far from the station, and Odalon couldn't see the docking of the pirates. But he wasn't curious. He only wanted to lay on a comfortable bed, and sleep for about twenty hours. He didn't notice, that he fell asleep, just as the escape pod reached the atmosphere of Dantooine.

Ghoul was less tired than the Jedi, but he wished to relax too. He took off the stormtrooper armour, which he felt uncomfortable. Especially his Zygerrian face, with the small horns didn't fit in the pilot helmet.

He only kept the stormtrooper boots, because he left his owns on Malastare, in the small cellar, with the two dead troopers. He wore his dark robes under the armour, and now he could finally reach the pockets of his clothes. He took a small pill out of his coat's inner pocket, and put it in his mouth. The pill contained compressed food which had only the most necessary nutriments.

Ghoul also noticed the space station. Once he has seen another station like this, orbiting the planet Ord Mantell. He thought, it's an ideal hideout for the pirates. They could place a cloaking device on the station, to make it almost invisible for any spaceships in the area. They could evacuate it easily because of the many sluice gates, where they could attach many ships. And it would have been destroyed easily, if it was needed to cover their tracks.

Ghoul saw the other escape pod, which shook a bit, when reached the atmosphere. He knew, his one will do the same in a few seconds. He was right. The escape pod shook, and than it's automatic landing programme started.

The two escape pods started to slow down, and they followed almost the same course, while they were heading to the surface. Their braking engines were activated by the computer, and they got slower, and slower, as their height decreased.

Finally the two pods landed on the planet's rough surface. Ghoul opened the door of his pod, and stepped out to Dantooine's rocks. He immediately felt, that the planet's gravity was weaker, than the standard. He guessed, he could jump almost four meters high.

Ghoul saw rocks all around him. He was in a small, circle-shaped valley, so he climbed out of the pit, and had a look at the surroundings from the hilltop. There were many orange-coloured rocks, and some grey ones too. To the south-east (at least Ghoul thought, that it's south-east) there were trees. Ghoul had never seen this species of trees before.

The bounty hunter walked to Odalon's escape pod, and opened up it's door. He found the Jedi sleeping in the pod's seat. Odalon was still wearing the stormtrooper outfit.

'Wake up!' groaned Ghoul. 'We're here!'

Odalon opened his eyes, and mumbled something. He saw Ghoul, standing in front of him, in the door of the escape pod. He slowly got to his feet, and followed the Zygerrian outside the pod.

'Where's the nearest city?' asked Ghoul.

'What?' Odalon seemed to be really tired.

'You can sense the closest city with the force.' said Ghoul impatiently. 'So, tell me where it is!'

Odalon tried to concentrate. He sat on the ground, closed his eyes, and searched for any kind of humans near. He didn't find any cities or towns, but he sensed a few intelligent creature near them.

'That was long.' groaned Ghoul. 'You always need four minutes to find anything with the force?'

'I'm just tired.' said Odalon.

'Where's the closest city?' asked Ghoul again.

'There's no city near here.' replied Odalon. 'But there are some people coming this way.'

'They could be pirates.' mumbled Ghoul.

'Or they could be locals. Maybe they could help us.' said Odalon.

'Maybe. I suggest hide it that forest, and see what they're doing.' said Ghoul. 'And keep your blaster ready!'

Odalon and Ghoul walked to the trees, and hid behind their wide trunks. They drew their blasters, and waited until the aliens, Odalon sensed, came close enough to see them with Ghoul's small binoculars.

The aliens arrived from the south-west. At first sight they looked like humans, but their moves were strange. They walked slower, than humans, and their limbs were unnaturally long. Their body was covered with old, worn-out robes. They were three, and Odalon thought, that the one, walking ahead the two others, was the leader.

The leader had long, black hair, which seemed to be scruffy, and hang in front of the alien's face. The two others were bald. Their skin was greyish, and their eyes were bigger, than humans'. One of them had a big fang, sticking out of his mouth, like one of his teeth grew bigger than the others.

The aliens were heading to the ruins of the two escape pods. They climbed up to the rocky hill, and disappeared behind it. Odalon and Ghoul could no longer see them.

'What do you think?' asked Ghoul.

'They're weird.' replied Odalon.

'I'm sure, they're not pirates. They don't have any weapons, and they walked to the stranger spacecrafts uncovered. They're not warriors.' said Ghoul, and he put his blaster into the inner pocket of his coat.

'I wouldn't trust 'em.' groaned Odalon.

'We need a ship to get off this planet, before the pirates figure out that we're here. We must ask them to help us.' explained Ghoul.

'I don't think, they have any ships.' said Odalon.

'Do what you want, but I make contact with 'em.' Ghoul stepped out of his shelter, and walked to the rocky hill. Odalon finally followed him to the hilltop, and they met the three creatures there. It seemed, they finished what they wanted to do with the pods.

'Hello! I'm Ghoul Moons.' said Ghoul, and he stopped in front of the leader.

The three aliens looked at them. They inspected the two visitors with their big eyes, but neither Odalon nor Ghoul could see any emotions on their face.

'Who are you?' asked Ghoul.

'We are the children of Dantooine.' replied the leader of the aliens. His voice was very high, and it seemed, his throat had different shape than most of the galaxy's creatures, so he could hardly speak the words of the GBS.

'Me and my friend need some help.' said Ghoul. 'Can you lend us a spaceship?'

'We do not have spaceships.' said the alien. 'Come with me to my village.'

'Thank you, for the invitation.' bowed Ghoul.

'Call me Wolf.' said the creature, and he waved his hand, like he wanted to say "follow me".

Odalon and Ghoul followed the three creatures. They didn't know, what was going to happen, and Odalon always kept his hand in his pocket, so he could draw his blaster for any sign of enemy behaviour from the aliens. But they didn't do anything suspicious. They just walked next to them in that strange way.

They arrived to the village in two hours. The village was built next to a bigger forest. Odalon estimated, that about fifty houses were there, most of them were built of stone and wood. The Jedi felt, he arrived to a village, where the most underdeveloped creatures lived in the whole galaxy.

They saw a couple of other aliens there, and they all looked different, but all of them were ugly, according to Odalon.

The three locals led the Jedi and the bounty hunter into a bigger stone house, where a really old creature was sitting in a wooden armchair. Two women were in the room, and one more man, who was standing near the door.

Wolf raised his hands and gave some signs to the old man. The old alien replied him with other hand-signs, and Wolf turned to the two guests:

'Welcome to our village, strangers! He is our wise leader, Pho. He wish to know your names.'

'I am Ghoul Moons.' replied Ghoul.

'I'm Odalon.' said the Jedi.

The old man nodded, and he showed some other hand-signs to Wolf. It seemed, that he moves much harder, than Wolf or any of his companions. He was nothing but skin and bones. His eye was dark, and careworn. He had only a few white hairs on his greyish head.

'Pho offers you a house, where you can stay for some days.' said Wolf.

'Thank you very much.' bowed Ghoul.

Pho showed signs to Wolf again, and the younger alien said:

'I lead you there.'

Than he left the house. Ghoul and Odalon bowed to Pho, and they left too. The Jedi and the bounty hunter followed Wolf. They walked through the alleys between the small houses, and finally arrived at one, which was in good condition, at the boarder of the village.

'This is your house.' Wolf said.

'Thank you.' bowed Ghoul. 'Would you come in for a few minutes? I would like to ask a few things.'

Wolf nodded, and he got into the house after Ghoul and Odalon.

'We wish to leave this planet as soon as we can, because we don't want to meet those pirates again.' started Ghoul. 'Do you know, where we can get a ship?'

'We have no ships.' said Wolf. 'And no one lives on the planet for a thousand years. We meet only pirates, but only a few times.'

'They come here regularly?' asked Ghoul surprised.

'Yes.' nodded Wolf. 'They bring us food and machines in exchange for our gems. They come every month.'

'When they'll come next time?' asked Ghoul.

'In two or three days.' replied Wolf. 'We prepared our gems for them.'

'Thanks.' said Ghoul. 'Please, inform us, when they arrive.'

Wolf nodded, and he turned to Odalon. He saw, Odalon wanted to ask a couple of things.

'Is Pho mute?' the Jedi asked. He didn't want to offend the aliens, but he was curious about some things.

'He has severe lung diseases. He can't say a word. We all communicate with hand-signs, because we can't speak really well.' explained Wolf.

'Which species do you belong to?' asked the Jedi.

'Long time ago, our ancestors were humans. But then, in the war between the Republic and the Sith Kingdom, a powerful weapon was brought here. It has been destroyed in a battle, however it would have been the super weapon of the Republic. Nuclear waste covered huge terrains, and radiation spread all over the planet. Everyone escaped, who could. But some people, mostly humans, left here, because no one wished to risk his life for a few thousand people, who already got hurt by the radiation. Our ancestors stayed here, and nobody came to Dantooine for a thousand years. Along this time, the radiation totally disappeared, but the Republic has forgotten about our planet. And we are the children of those, who suffered from this radiation. We are mutants. But I think, we can't survive for long. Most of us have died. We will extinct in a hundred years, if not earlier' Wolf explained.

'That is sad.' Odalon hang his head. He felt the mutant's sadness through the force, and he wished to feel with him, but he still thought, these creatures are too far from his species to be likeable. He was thinking about this, when suddenly a strange feeling came to his mind. He was afraid of becoming emotionless. And that would mean, he will turn to the dark side, he thought. He was afraid of turning to the dark side, however he remembered, that Yoda told him so much times, that "fear itself leads to the dark side".

He tried to clear his mind from these thoughts by meditating. He closed his eyes, and soon he fell asleep. He had dreams of a young Jedi knight, who turned on his friends and killed hundreds of people.

Odalon suddenly startled out of his sleep. He was laying on a bed, in a dark room. The air was cool, but he felt, he was sweating. He stood up, and saw Ghoul, laying on the other bed, sleeping.

The Jedi quietly left the room, and walked outside of the small house. The night was a bit cold on Dantooine, because of it's big distance of it's sun. But during the day, the air warmed up easily, because the atmosphere was thin, and it didn't have gases, which deflected the sunshine. It would be really dangerous to live there, because of the UV radiation, but fortunately there were many clouds in the atmosphere, and these clouds had different elements, than the usual clouds, so it could absorb most of the radiation. That was the reason, why disappeared the radiation after the destroyed weapon in a few hundred years.

The Jedi remembered his dream, and his feelings he felt before the meditation. Somehow he was sure about the explanation of his dream: he will turn to the dark side. But he didn't want to accept this explanation. He wanted to find another one. There must be another one! It can't be, that he will turn to the dark side! He's better than the Emperor, and Darth Vader, and that machine-man! He can't be similar to those people!

Odalon was afraid of his dream, and he felt angry. He was angry to the Emperor, to Vader and to the machine-warrior, he fought. He wished to take revenge on them. But he realised, he shouldn't think like that, because these thoughts lead to the dark side. He became angry to himself, because he couldn't control his feelings.

'Why do all these things have to be so confusing?' thought the Jedi. 'How can I find the right way?'

Odalon looked at the sky, but he couldn't see any stars, because of the clouds. There was no one in the village, outside the houses. Everyone was sleeping, like Ghoul. And Odalon knew, he should have been sleeping too, because he didn't have any real opportunity to rest since his adventure over Malastare. So finally he went back to the house, laid on his bed, and fell asleep again.

When Odalon woke up, the sun was already high above their heads. He forgot his thoughts, which haunted him at the night. As he opened his eyes, he noticed Ghoul, sitting on a wooden chair, eating some kind of local fruit.

'Good morning!' Ghoul said.

'You too.' mumbled Odalon.

'We've got to talk about some things.' said Ghoul. 'Take this as breakfast.'

The Zygerrian pushed a wooden plate to Odalon. On the plate there were only fruits. The Jedi picked up a smaller, red, apple-like one, and tasted it. The fruit was good.

'In a few days, the pirates will come with the supplies.' said the bounty hunter. 'I think, that will be the opportunity to leave this planet.'

'What do you want to do?' asked the Jedi.

'We'll take over the pirate ship. They can't be more than five. It's just a smaller cargo ship with less valuable goods.' explained Ghoul.

'It's a bit risky.' groaned Odalon.

'Not more, than our last adventure in the space battle.' smiled Ghoul.

'Ok.' nodded Odalon. 'But what we're gonna do, when we'll have the ship?'

'I don't have anything urgent to do now. Maybe I will go back to Zygerria to sort out a few things, but nothing important.' said Ghoul.

'I want to join Senator Organa's secret group.' quoted Odalon. 'Don't you wanna come?'

'Maybe.' said Ghoul. 'So we'll go to Alderaan?'

'No.' Odalon shook his head. 'They're on Polis Massa.'

'Never heard of it.' groaned Ghoul.

'It is a secret space station in an asteroid field.' explained Odalon.

'Where?' asked the bounty hunter.

'I don't know.' said Odalon, and suddenly he felt absolutely hopeless. He didn't think about it before, that how could he find Polis Massa without Ci Moss, Hector and the Black Crow's information. 'The Balck Crow!' he said loudly.

'Is that a ship?' asked Ghoul.

'Right!' said Odalon. 'And the coordinates of Polis Massa are in it's main computer.'

'Where's that ship?'

'On Coruscant.' Odalon hang his head.

'It'd be a suicide to walk into the Imperial Capital.' said Ghoul. 'But maybe we could get to that ship. But, don't you think, that the Imperials have already got those coordinates, if the Crow is parking on Coruscant?'

'All information in the Black Crow's computer is encrypted.' said Odalon.

'How long will it take to decrypt the information for them?'

'Maybe more than three or four days.' smiled Odalon. 'That's one of the best Separatist codes, which were ever used in the galaxy.'

'That means, we have enough time to get that ship, and warn Organa.' quoted Ghoul.

'We must steal the Black Crow from the Imperials.' said Odalon. 'It's the best ship in the galaxy I've ever saw, and we can't let it, and it's information to fall into the wrong hands.'

'Right.' nodded Ghoul. 'Now, prepare yourself! You should build a new lightsaber.'

'Wha... How do you know I don't have one?' asked Odalon surprised.

'You've never used your saber. And you fought the pirate in the pirate ship's hangar with your bare hands, instead of your lightsaber.' explained Ghoul.

'You're so clever.' mumbled Odalon. 'How can I build a new one?'

'I'm sure, you'll find the parts, which are needed.' said Ghoul. 'And in the mines, under the surface, there are still many crystals for the saber.'

'I'm not sure, but I think, that the radiation is still present in the mines, deep under the ground.' said Odalon.

'If you're a Jedi Padawan, kid, then you should resolve this problem.' replied Ghoul, then he turned his back to Odalon, and walked away behind the small houses.

Odalon finally asked the locals to bring him a few crystals, and they did. The Jedi collected as many useful gadgets and metal pieces, as he could in the village. Then he got the crystals, and he found three of them proper for the lightsaber.

Odalon chose the best one, and connected it to the energy cell, which he found in Pho's house. The energy cell had only a small amount of power stored, so it must have been charged before the Jedi could use the lightsaber. It's energy was enough for only a short test of the weapon.

Odalon was working on the saber for six hours, and had only a short break to eat something for launch. In the afternoon he was almost ready, when Ghoul came back. The Zygerrian was nibbling some yellow seeds, he got from the locals.

'How are you doing?' he asked.

'I almost finished with the saber.' replied Odalon. 'Please be quiet! I have to concentrate now.'

Ghoul sat on his bed, and ate his seeds, while Odalon put the insulator slabs to their place, and clamped them. It was the most meticulous part of building a lightsaber. If the insulators weren't placed perfectly, the saber wouldn't work, and it could even hurt it's user severely. This time, Odalon didn't have to afraid of being hurt, because the energy cell was too low to cause real damage to anybody.

The Jedi finished it. He raised the weapon, and pushed the small button on it's side. It worked! The lightsaber became active, and it's bright light illuminated the small house.

'Good job, kid!' whistled Ghoul, looking at the saber.

'It don't have enough energy.' said Odalon.

Just as he said, the saber's light started to weaken, and after a few seconds it completely disappeared. The buzzing voice was also turned into silence.

'Attach your blaster's cell to it!' suggested Ghoul.

'You should have told that before.' groaned Odalon. 'I have to take it apart again.'

'Hand it over to me!' said Ghoul, and he reached for the weapon.

The bounty hunter inspected the grip of the saber for a few seconds, then he threw it back to the Jedi.

'You could attach the energy cell to the cell of the saber at the lower end of it, where you see those wires under the metal cover.' explained Ghoul. 'You should also repair the insulator slabs there, or you'll be killed by your own weapon.'

Odalon inspected the saber, and he had to admit, that the bounty hunter was right. He removed the lower cover of the saber, then he put his blaster on the table, and started to take it's power cell out.

'Listen, kid!' said Ghoul. 'We must unbend ourselves tonight. Tomorrow we'll take over the pirates' ship.'

'What about the locals?' asked Odalon.

'I convinced them to let us act. Probably the pirates won't help them any more if they figure out, they helped us. But they said, they can hide in the mines, because no one dares to go down there and expose himself to the radiation. They think, they'll extinct, so they wouldn't mind this inconvenience.' explained Ghoul.

'Don't you think, it's unfair?' asked Odalon. He felt compassion to the Children of Dantooine, because the two of them will ruin the peaceful life of about two hundred other, innocent people.

'It is.' nodded Ghoul. 'But I think, we can help them later.'

'How?' asked Odalon.

'This planet has been forgotten for centuries. It could be the perfect base for Organa's secret rebel group, if they will be found by the Empire on the asteroid.' said Ghoul. 'They'll wipe out the pirates easily, and they'll help these people.'

'Good idea.' smiled Odalon.

'Make that saber functional, and prepare yourself for tomorrow!' said Ghoul, and he left the house again.

Odalon left there with the power cells, and he had to figure out, how to attach the blaster's cell to the saber's one, and also make the gadget usable in a fight.


	12. Recovering the Black Crow

The pirates' freighter lowered in the atmosphere of Dantooine. It was heading to the village, where the Children of Dantooine leaved, and landed on the field near the village.

'Open the cargo bay!' ordered the captain. 'They'll come for their stuff in a few minutes.'

Just as the captain finished the sentence, two people turned up on the field, near the houses. They were wearing long robes, and they were coming like their legs were in bad condition. Their arms, or at least their coat's arms seemed to be much longer, than the simple humans' arms.

'Here they come.' the captain pointed at the two strangers, coming towards the ship.

'I can't see Wolf this time.' said one of the two pilots. 'What happened to him?'

'Maybe died.' shrugged the other one. 'These creatures won't survive for long.'

'Let's get down to work, guys!' groaned the captain.

There were four of the pirates there. The captain, the pilot, the co-pilot, and a guard. None of them was human. All four of them left the cockpit, and entered the cargo bay. They lowered the ramp, and the two pilots started to put the crates out of the ship to the field. The guard accompanied to the captain, who went to welcome the locals.

'Hey, guys!' he shouted at the two strangers. 'We brought the cargo! Hand over the crystals!'

The two strangers were now closer than five meters. They didn't say a word, but that wasn't surprising for the pirate captain. He got used to these creatures, who communicated only, when it was necessary.

But this time, instead of the few short words, the two strangers wished to negotiate aggressively. They dropped their dark robes, which covered their bodies and faces, and revealed the blaster and the lightsaber, which they held in their hands.

The two pirates didn't have time to draw their weapons. Ghoul's blaster shots were fast, and precise from this short distance. Odalon didn't even activated his lightsaber, and the two pirates were already dead. The Jedi saw the bounty hunter fighting for the first time, and he was impressed by the accuracy of his shots.

'Move!' hissed Ghoul.

The two other pirates raised their head, when they heard the shots. They drew their blasters, and looked out on the field from behind the cargo crates. They saw the two people running towards the ship, and they shot immediately.

Ghoul was running as fast as he could, because he didn't have any shelter on the field. He must got behind the ship to cover himself from the pirates' blasts.

The two first shots missed the bounty hunter, and when the two pirates could shoot again, Ghoul had already reached the ship. They targeted Odalon, who was following Ghoul, but ran slower than the Zygerrian.

The Jedi turned on his lightsaber, and deflected the shot, which almost hit his head. Long ago, in the Clone Wars he had some opportunities to learn, how to deflect the laser bolts with his saber. During the war every Jedi had to learn it perfectly before he or she could go out and fight, because it was necessary to defend themselves from the laser blasts.

Odalon also reached the ship, and got behind it, next to Ghoul.

'Get behind 'em!' whispered Ghoul.

Odalon nodded, and started to round the ship to get behind the two pirates.

While the Jedi was running next to the ship, Ghoul continued to shoot at the pirates, because he didn't want any of them to escape until Odalon could get behind them. He's shots were so imprecise, but he only wanted to threaten the two pirates so he didn't target them.

Then Odalon turned up behind the two pirates. Ghoul jumped out of his shelter, drawing the attention of the pirates to himself. That move gave enough time for Odalon to kill the two pirates. But the Jedi didn't kill them. He only shouted at the two pirates:

'Drop those blaster!'

The two pirates turned around at the same time, but instead of dropping their weapons, they both targeted the Jedi. Odalon didn't have time to defend himself from both of them, and he stood too close to deflect both laser bolts.

The Jedi tried to jump aside. The move was successful enough to evade the shots. But as he looked at the two pirates from the ground, he saw, that one of them got a laser shot into his head, and he fell to the grass, dead.

The other pointed his blaster at Odalon, but he was loo late. The Jedi could cut his hand off with his saber. The pirate cried out in pain, as he was staring at his bleeding wrist. Then a laser shot impacted into his chest, and killed him too.

Odalon stood up, and put his lightsaber away.

'It wasn't necessary to kill him!' Odalon said angrily.

'It was.' said Ghoul. 'In a war, you can't let your enemy go!'

Odalon and Ghoul finished to unload the cargo bay. By the time all the crates were out of the ship, Wolf arrived. He looked at the dead pirates and the two living men, then said:

'You can return here any time.' he said. 'You'll always find a warm welcome here.'

'Thanks.' bowed Odalon.

'Unfortunately Pho died tonight.' continued Wolf. 'So I became the leader of the Children of Dantooine. If you ever return, seek me.'

'Thanks' repeated the Jedi.

'Good luck on your journey!' said Wolf.

'Thank you.' bowed Odalon. 'May the force be with you!'

'Goodbye!' said Ghoul, and he got into the ship.

Odalon followed the bounty hunter to the cockpit, and sat into the co-pilot's seat. He was surprised, when he saw, that Ghoul could control the ship like he would have done it thousand times before.

'Seems to be easy.' said Ghoul. 'Once I've driven a ship similar to this one.'

'Good.' nodded Odalon.

'Let's see if this junk-box can take us to Coruscant.' said Ghoul, and he started the main engines of the ship.

The spacecraft slowly left the ground. Odalon looked out through the window, and saw Wolf, standing on the ground, waving his unnaturally long hand. Then the ship accelerated, and flew across the atmosphere, out into the dark space.

Ghoul checked the condition of the spaceships all systems on the computer, and he was satisfied with the results. This ship could take them to Coruscant without any problems. And he also found, that the ship didn't have any illegal modifications. It had a very old identification number, but it was once a legal ship, used by the a big Republic trading company.

'I think, we'll have no problems with the landing, once we're on Coruscant.' he said.

The Zygerrian set the coordinates of Coruscant, and turned on the hyperdrive engine. It charged itself in three minutes, then the small pirate cargo ship made the jump to light-speed, with the two passengers aboard.

'Are you a real Jedi Padawan?' asked Ghoul, after a few minutes of silence.

This question surprised Odalon. He couldn't imagine how Ghoul could think, that he's not a real Jedi. He built a lightsaber, he could use the force, and he used a really hard mind trick on the Imperial officer on Malastare, in the control tower.

'I mean, of course, you are a Jedi, formally.' continued Ghoul. 'You have the force-thing, the mind-control thing, and so on. But do you feel yourself someone, who follows the path of a real Jedi?'

Odalon shivered by these words. For a few seconds he thought, that Ghoul could read his mind. It wasn't the first time, when he felt this. Maybe Ghoul can really see his thoughts? Maybe he knows, what Odalon was thinking about last night? Maybe he knows, what Odalon thought a few seconds ago, and that was the reason, why he rephrased his question? No, it can't be! Odalon should have sensed that, if Ghoul was a force-sensitive Zygerrian.

'Why?' Odalon finally asked.

'Listen, kid.' started Ghoul turning to Odalon. 'In my language, the word "padawan" means "hero". And I could say countless things about you, but I would never call you a hero.'

'You mean, I don't deserve my title as a Jedi Padawan?' asked Odalon. He felt angry about it, because deep inside his mind he thought it was true. But eventually he wouldn't admit this.

'I think you can become a person, who deserves to be called "Padawan", but now, you're just a kid. You have to make up your mind! You wanna be a a peace-keeper kind of Jedi, or a warrior, like the clones you were fighting with? You must choose or you won't survive for long.' said Ghoul.

'What do you mean?' groaned Odalon.

'Down on the planet you should've killed those pirates. If you want to fight, you must not hesitate to kill your enemies. We are at war!' explained Ghoul.

'But they're people, not just droids, which I were fighting before!' cried Odalon. 'A Jedi would never kill someone, if it's not necessary.'

'There is another way.' said Ghoul. 'You can follow the original path of the Jedi, but then I suggest staying out of this war, or you'll be dead soon.'

Odalon wanted to argue, but Ghoul didn't listen to him longer. They speak little during the journey. Then they arrived to Coruscant. The planet, covered with millions of skyscrapers, appeared in front of them, and they flew towards the great space-port of the galaxy's Capital.

'Landing permission given.' said the droid's voice a few minutes later. 'Head to docking bay 1074.'

Ghoul piloted the ship to the predetermined docking bay, and landed there. Odalon saw only a few guards in the space-port. He quoted, that the blockade over the planet has ended.

As they left the ship, Odalon led Ghoul to the docking bay, where the Black Crow was waiting. But unfortunately the docking bay was guarded by eight stormtroopers. They were patrolling all over the Black Crow, which had it's ramp open.

'They're inspecting the ship.' said Ghoul. 'We can't save the coordinates of Polis Massa now.'

'Maybe we can kill them, and take the ship. Then the coordinates would be safe with us.' said Odalon.

'I'm sure they already copied all the information of the ship's computer. It will take time, but they will find Polis Massa.' explained Ghoul.

'Then what should we do now?' asked Odalon.

'I keep them busy, while you get on the ship, and make it fly.' said Ghoul. 'Then I join you, and we'll be outta here. I don't wanna stay here for long. It's the Capital of the enemy.'

Odalon nodded, and he sneaked to the nearest shelter, where he could hide, and the stormtroopers couldn't see him. He was waiting there, until he noticed, that six of the eight troopers left the ship, and headed to another docking bay. Odalon immediately jumped out of his shelter, and ran to the two remaining stormtroopers.

'Stop there!' shouted one of the troopers.

'You will let me get into the ship.' said Odalon, and he concentrated his force power on the trooper's mind.

'I will let you...' said the trooper, but suddenly he stopped. 'I can't let you go there.'

Odalon felt, that the trooper's mind is getting free. The Jedi was losing his control over the stormtrooper's mind. He tried to regain the control, and finally he succeeded.

'Ok.' nodded the trooper. 'You can get inside for a few moments.'

Odalon quickly ran to the ramp, and stepped on the ship. He could finally let the trooper's mind free, and he felt relief that he could finish concentrating on the mind trick.

Odalon closed the ramp with a switch, next to it, and he drew his lightsaber. As he stepped into the cockpit, he saw two humans, sitting in the pilot's and co-pilot's seats, and facing the computer screens. The Jedi stopped for a moment. He knew, he should kill these people, but he felt, it's unfair and he didn't wish to kill these innocent men.

'What the...?' shouted one of the two men as he noticed the Jedi.

He drew out a small blaster, but Odalon was faster. He cut off the arm, which held the blaster, and he stabbed his saber into the enemy's stomach. The other man jumped to the door of the cockpit, and ran to the closed ramp. He reached for the switch, to open it, but Odalon got there faster, and the other Imperial fell to the floor dead.

Odalon put his lightsaber away, and sat into the pilot's seat. He switched on the computer of the ship, and he saw, that the two stormtroopers, who tried to stop him outside the ship, was now shouting into their communicators. They were calling reinforcements.

Odalon activated the four smaller blasters of the ship, which were useful against smaller ground units. These guns were less accurate, and less powerful than the main cannon of the Black Crow, but it was easier to control them from the co-pilot's computer.

The two stormtroopers were hit by the ship's laser bolts before they could react. They died immediately. But just as the Jedi finished off the two guards, he noticed, that Ghoul is running to the ship, pursued by the other troopers.

Odalon opened the ramp, and set the blasters to target the stormtroopers. The Imperial soldiers had to stop, and get into shelter, so Ghoul had time get on the ship. He closed the ramp behind him, and jumped into the cockpit.

'Punch it!' he shouted.

Odalon sat back into the pilot's seat, and activated the main engines of the ship. He switched on manual control, and he pulled the rod control. The Black Crow rose from the giant space-port of Coruscant.

Ghoul sat into the co-pilot's seat, and inspected the computer for a few seconds, then he activated the deflector shields of the ship, without asking Odalon, how to do that. Odalon was surprised, but he didn't have time to think about it now. He set as much power to the engines as he could. He had learned, that it's easier to control the ship, if the engines have more energy.

'Blastboats!' Ghoul shouted pointing at the radar screen.

They were still flying in the atmosphere of Coruscant, through the clouds, when three GAT-12 Skipray Blastboats turned up, and pursued them. These star ships had a crew of five: a pilot, a co-pilot, a sensor operator and two gunners. They didn't have deflector shields, but the cover of the ships was strong enough to resist the laser blasts of the simple star fighters.

'They're faster than us!' shouted Ghoul.

'Charge the gun!' ordered the Jedi.

Ghoul changed his seat to the gunner's one, and turned on the main cannon of the ship. He started to charge it's power, and waited, until the Blastboats got in range.

The Black Crow was leaving the atmosphere of Corouscant. Through the window, Odalon could see the thousands of shining stars of the Core Worlds. But he didn't care about the stars right now. He tried to keep their ship on course, over the planet.

'They're in range.' said Ghoul. 'I target 'em.'

The Blastboats started to shoot at the Black Crow, but every single one their laser bolts missed the ship, not like Ghoul's shot, which perfectly hit the closest Blastboat, and the Imperial ship exploded in the space.

'They're too imprecise.' said Ghoul.

'It's not their fault.' grinned Odalon. 'Our ship can absorb airwaves, so their targeting system can't locate us really well.'

More laser blasts flew near the Black Crow, but the ship was still flying untouched over Corouscant.

'I think, you're wrong this time.' groaned Ghoul.

Suddenly the Jedi noticed a very big light on the radar. He looked out, through the window, and saw a small, bright metal point far in the space. It looked like a star from this distance, but it was brighter, and it moved.

'Star Destroyer!' shouted Odalon.

Until this second he thought, they could really escape from the Imperials, but now he felt hopeless. The hyperdrive couldn't be charged fast enough, before the Star Destroyer would get in range. And once the giant battleship will start shooting at them, they will certainly be dead.

'I'm charging the hyperdrive.' said the Jedi, and he set the coordinates of Polis Massa into the hyperdrive engine's computer.

Some laser bolts missed the Black Crow again. The Blastboats were now really close to the Crow, and they started to take narrow turns around the ship, so they could be hardly targeted by the gunner of the escaping ship.

'They're moving too fast.' said Ghoul. 'I can't shoot them.'

'Let me there!' shouted the Jedi. Suddenly an idea came to his mind. He was a Jedi after all, so maybe he could shoot those Blastboats by using the force to target them.

Ghoul sat into the pilot's seat and took the rod control. He was a good pilot, and he hoped, he could drive this ship good enough to evade the Imperials.

Odalon was looking into the targeting computer of the cannon. He saw the Blastboats for only very short moments, and he couldn't follow them fast enough to target them. Then he started to concentrate on the force, and he tried to sense, where the Blastboats are.

Then the Jedi pulled the trigger, and his laser bolt hit one of the two enemy ships. Unfortunately he could only damage it's missile launcher, it's engine and one of it's cannons. The Blastboat had to slow down, and it couldn't fly and shoot as good as a few seconds earlier, but it was still in one piece.

The two smaller ships were trying to cut the way of the Black Crow. They left only one direction, in which Odalon and Ghoul could try to escape, but there was waiting the Star Destroyer. And it was only waiting!

Ghoul suddenly turned the ship around, and headed to the Imperial battleship. For a few moments Odalon didn't notice that, but than he saw, that the Star Destroyer is growing on his computer's monitor very fast.

'What the hell are you doing?' Odalon cried.

'Saving our skin!' replied Ghoul. 'The Star Destroyer won't shoot us!'

Odalon didn't believe him, and he had a quick look at the hyperdrive engine's computer. It was almost charged. Odalon sat back into the co-pilot's seat, and prepared to hit the control of the hyperdrive as soon as it will be ready.

They got into the Star Destroyer's range, but nothing happened. The battleship was still standing there, without shooting any laser bolts at the Black Crow. They flew close to the battleship, like Ghoul would be showing them, that he wasn't afraid, but then Odalon noticed, that the hyperdrive was charged.

'No! Wait!' shouted Ghoul, because he also saw the light, indicating that the hyperdrive was ready. It was too late. Odalon hit the control, and the Black Crow made the jump to light-speed over Coruscant, and headed to Polis Massa through the hyperspace.

'What?' asked the Jedi. He didn't understand why Ghoul wanted to stay there, in the middle of the Imperial territory.

'We have a bug on board.' said Ghoul.

'How do you know that?' asked Odalon.

'The Star Destroyer didn't shoot. I bet it's order was to come, and threaten us, but don't destroy. And those Blastboats were more imprecise, than they should've been. An Imperial pilot can shoot you a few times, even without the targeting system.' the bounty hunter explained. 'And if they've let us escape, that means, they're tracking us.'

'And what would've happened if you were mistaken?' shouted Odaon angrily.

'I wasn't.' replied Ghoul.


	13. Searching for the truth

The Black Crow was standing on the rough surface of the giant asteroid. Two people in their spacesuits, were slowly walking towards the sluice gate of the secret base, built in the crater of Polis Massa.

The cloaking device was on, so the transmission of the bug, hid on the board of the Black Crow couldn't leave the asteroid. The Imperials got the last signal from the asteroid field, so they will have to search every asteroids to find the secret base. Ghoul hoped, that Organa, and his man will have enough time to leave the asteroid before the Imperial scouts find them. But until now, there were no Imperial ships near Polis Massa.

'Welcome back, my friends!' said Organa cheerfully, when he saw the two astronaut-like men stepping out of the sluice gate onto the corridor.

'Senator Organa, I have bad news.' said Odalon, while he removed his helmet. 'First, let me introduce Ghoul Moons, a Zygerrian bounty hunter, who helped me to escape from the Imperials and get here.'

Ghoul removed his helmet, and bowed in front of Organa.

'Welcome, Mr Moons! My name is Bail Organa.' said the Senator, and he shook Ghoul's hand. Then Organa turned back to Odalon: 'Where are Ci Moss and Hector?'

'They are dead.' replied Odalon. 'I will tell you everything later. But now I must speak to Yoda.'

'He is still here, but he will leave in a few hours.' said Organa. 'You can find him on the fourth floor, in the eastern wing.'

'Thanks.' nodded Odalon. 'Ghoul, please tell him about the bug!'

Then Odalon left the bounty hunter and the Senator, and ran to the room, which he owned, when he was here a few days ago. He changed his spacesuit to more comfortable clothes, and he headed to the eastern wing of the base. He quickly found Yoda's room.

As Odalon opened the door, he saw the old Jedi master sitting in an armchair, meditating.

'Sense your presence, I did.' said Yoda. 'Glad to see you again, I am.'

The old master opened his eyes, and looked at Odalon. The young Jedi suddenly felt, that the master knows everything, that happened in the last few days.

'I want to know the truth!' said Odalon.

'Feel the anger in your voice, I do. That leads to the dark side, which you wish to avoid.' said Yoda.

'I don't care! I want to know the truth, and I won't let you go out of this room, before you tell me everything!' shouted the young Jedi.

'Then sitting here for a long long time, we will.' said Yoda. 'Because prepared to hear everything, you are not.'

'Enough of this! Stop telling me your stupid Jedi-teaching things! We're not at the Jedi Temple! I am not your student any more! And there is no Jedi Order any more! We must change, or the last few Jedi will certainly die!' cried Odalon.

'Control your mind, you can not. If give you information, I do, easily get it, the Emperor can. That is why tell you the truth, I don't.' said Yoda calmly. 'But if too curious, you are, come with me to my exile, you could. And then tell you everything, I will.'

'Exile?' shouted Odalon. 'You should be fighting out there! You're the most powerful Jedi of all time! Who could destroy the Emperor if you can't?'

'I failed. My time is up. help these people no longer, I can, even if stay with them, I do.' explained Yoda.

'And neither I can help them?' asked Odalon angrily.

'Up to you, that is.' replied Yoda. 'Decide it on your own, you must.'

Then the old master closed his eyes again. He was just sitting in the armchair, meditating. Odalon was looking at him for a minute, than he said:

'I will stay.'

And he left the room.

Odalon went to his own room, and sat on his bed. He knew, there was something, that Yoda and Organa worked out together, and now they wanted to keep in secret. But he was a Jedi! Who could have kept a secret better than a Jedi? Organa is just a man. He can't control the force, but he could know the secret! It's unfair!

Suddenly the door opened up. Ghoul was standing there.

'Come to the conference room! Organa wants something.' he said, and he left the room.

Odalon stood up, and walked to the conference room. He decided, that he will find out the secret plan of Yoda and Organa, at all cost.

In the conference room five people was waiting, and two droids. Senator Organa was sitting at the end of the oval-shaped table, next to him on the right, Bail Antilles, and on the left, a red haired, young women, who Odalon had saw before, but he didn't know when, and where. Near the table, there was a tall, strong, brown-haired man standing, who wore the uniform of the Alderaan's fleet. He was Raymus Antilles, the Captain of the Tantive IV. And Ghoul was the fifth person, sitting next to the table.

The two droids were standing beside the wall. One of them was an R2 or R3 unit, and the other was a human-shaped, gold-coloured interpreter droid.

'Hello, Odalon!' said Organa, and he pointed at a free seat.

Odalon sat on the seat, and turned to the other people in the room. Organa introduced him everyone. The red-haired woman was Mon Mothma, the Senator of Chandrilla.

'We are gathered here, because we have to leave this asteroid, and find another secret base.' said Organa. 'That is our most important goal now.'

'Why do you have to hide, at all?' asked Ghoul. 'You are members of the Imperial Senate, and part of the Empire.'

'We don't have to hide.' said Organa. 'But most of the men on this asteroid are wanted in the Empire. And it is our responsibility to hide them, because we want them to help us to organise a force, which can stand against Emperor Palpatine.'

'I see.' nodded Ghoul.

'Then, let's see, where we can establish our new base.'

'We should go to the Outer Rim.' said Captain Antilles. 'To a planet, which is out of the Empire's control.'

'Or we could move to Bakura.' suggested Bail Antilles. 'They agreed to help us against the Empire, because they wish to keep their independence.'

'On Bakura we would be easily found.' said Mond Mothma. 'And the Republic forces also found General Grievous when he hid in the Outer Rim. A hideout in the Outer Rim would support us for a few months, but the Empire will certainly spot us sooner or later.'

'Maybe we could search for another asteroid field.' said Captain Antilles.

'Establishing a secret base on an asteroid would take too much time. We must find a place,where we can hide and live just as we arrive there.' said Mon Mothma.

'Dantooine.' whispered Odalon, just to himself.

'Sorry?' asked Organa. 'What did you say?'

'I said, Dantooine is the perfect planet.' said Odalon. 'No one got there for hundreds of years. It's out of the Imperial-controlled territories. And it's surface is liveable for us.'

'Sounds good, but you forget about the radiation on the planet.' objected Mon Mothma.

'There is no radiation.' smiled Odalon. 'We were there with Ghoul, and we're still all right. I think, we can't find a better place to hide our group. We should only defeat the pirates.'

'Pirates?' asked Organa.

'A group of pirates are living over the planet, in a very old space station. It would be easy to drive them from there.' explained the Jedi.

'That sounds to be the best choice.' nodded Mon Mothma.

'Then we will move our headquarters to Dantooine.' quoted Organa.

'I don't understand something.' said Captain Antilles. 'Why should we leave Polis Massa so quickly?'

'The Imperials tracked Odalon while he got here, so now they know, there is a secret base in this asteroid field, and they will find us here in a few days.' explained Organa. 'That reminds me, why these droids are here! These are C-3PO and R2-D2. They will scan the whole Black Crow to find the bug, and turn it off. It would take some time, but it's faster to search for a bug with droids, than with humans.'

'Thanks.' nodded Odalon.

'I think, that's all for now.' said Organa. 'I'll take these droids to the Black Crow. Mon Mothma, I wish you good luck on your journey back to Chandrilla.'

'Thanks. May the force be with everyone!'

Every people left the conference room, except Odalon and Ghoul. They were still sitting on their seats, looking at the table in front of them, and waiting until the room was empty.

'Ghoul, would you help me to find out, what's going on here?' asked Odalon finally.

'They didn't tell you anything, eh?' groaned the Zygerrian.

'I want to know the truth! It can help me to fight the Empire.' said the Jedi. 'So, will you help me?'

'I don't have better plans for now.' replied Ghoul. 'Where should we start?'

'In Organa's suite.' said Odalon, and he stood up from his seat. 'We must be quickly. He's taking the droids to the Crow, but he'll be back in a few minutes.'

They left the conference room, and headed to Organa's suite. Ghoul tried to open the door, but it was locked. Odalon stepped to it, and opened it with the force. Then they entered the room.

At first sight, the Jedi didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He stepped to the desk, opened the drawers, and looked at the papers and disks, but found nothing. While Ghoul turned on the computer, but he needed a password to log in.

'Kid! Can you help me finding the password?' asked the bounty hunter.

'How can I find out?'

'You're a Jedi! You can do anything with the force!' said Ghoul.

Odalon stepped to the computer, however he didn't think he could get the password. But before he could do anything, they both heard the crying voice of a baby. They ran to the corner, where the voice came from, and saw a young child crying. She was laying on Organa's bed, under the blanket. She was born only a few days ago.

'What the hell is this?' shouted Odalon surprised. 'I thought Organa didn't have a child.'

'It's not his baby.' said Ghoul. 'He wouldn't take a baby with him here, if his wife could look after her on Alderaan. And she was born just a few days ago. You said Organa was here, when you were here last time. It's very unlikely, that he flew back to Alderaan, picked up his daughter, and came back without the mother of the baby.'

'Then who is she?' asked Odalon.

'I don't know. But I think, we should get outta here quickly. Organa could be back in any time.' said Ghoul.

They left the room, and Odalon closed the door with the force behind them. Then they hid behind the corner of the corridor, and waited, until Organa came. It seemed, that the Senator didn't notice, that anyone broke into his suite. And as Odalon tried to catch the Senator's thoughts, he couldn't feel surprise. That meant, Organa knew about the baby.

'It's mysterious.' said Odalon. 'I think, if she's not Organa's daughter, then she could be the key to find out, what the Senator's planning.'

'She could be.' nodded Ghoul.

'And that means, we must find out first, whose child is she.' said the Jedi.

'Exactly.' smiled Ghoul. 'Maybe you're smarter than I thought.'

Odalon grimaced.

'But how could we find out that?' asked the Jedi.

'If the baby was born here, then maybe they have information about her in the main computer. And if she was born somewhere else, then we can find out where, if we check the log of the spaceship traffic, which also should be in the main computer.' explained Ghoul.

'So we should break into the main computer.' summarised Odalon.

'I never said that.' smiled Ghoul.

Finally they entered the control room, and Odalon gained control over one of the officer's mind, and made him to hand out the information.

Then Odalon and Ghoul went to the Jedi's room, and looked at the disk, which they got from the officer. They put it in the computer, and scanned the data. Finally they found what they were looking for: The baby was born on Polis Massa. Her mother was Senator Padme Amidala, but her father was unknown. Unfortunately Senator Amidala died, when the child was born. That was the reason, why Senator Bail Organa adopted the baby, who was called Leia.

'It seems I was wrong.' said Odalon. 'She's just a child, who was adopted by Organa. She has nothing to do with any secret plans.'

'I don't think so.' said Ghoul. 'I still believe, the baby's the key.'

'What do you mean?' asked the Jedi.

'We don't know who was her father, however, her mother was a Senator.' said Ghoul. 'Don't you think, it's a bit suspicious? A Senator has a baby, and no one knows who is the dad?'

'Maybe you're right.' nodded Odalon. 'But that doesn't help us.'

'There's another interesting condition.' continued Ghoul. 'According to this data, Senator Amidala was already near to death when she arrived to Polis Massa. That means, she must have been brought here.'

'But who brought her?' asked Odalon.

'We have the whole log of every spaceships which left Polis Massa, or arrived here, so we can find out, who brought the Senator...' started Ghoul.

'Then let's see it!' shouted Odalon, and he turned to the computer.

'Would you stop to think for a moment?' asked Ghoul impatiently.

Odalon turned around, and listened to the bounty hunter, but he thought, Ghoul couldn't tell more useful things. He was wrong.

'It's obvious, that Organa and Yoda faked the data, because they wanted to hide something.' continued the Zygerrian. 'So I'm quiet sure, that the person, who brought Senator Amidala here, is someone, who don't want to be identified. Someone, who has to hide, or who wants to hide...'

Odalon couldn't stand to shout:

'Yoda!'

'Wrong.' said Ghoul. 'He was brought to Polis Massa by Organa, on the Tantive IV. But this person, we're looking for could be another Jedi.'

'But I don't know who survived the...' started Odalon, but suddenly a conversation came to his mind, when he talked to Khal Seda, a Jedi knight, who survived the order sixty-six. 'Master Kenobi!'

'Great.' nodded Ghoul. 'Now we know, who we're looking for. And maybe I have another idea.'

'Yes?' asked Odalon.

'If Master Kenobi is the father of the girl, maybe he escaped, because he wanted to know his daughter is in a safe place, with a trustful man, and he didn't want to endanger his baby with his presence.' said Ghoul.

'That's logical, but he could've taken the girl with him, and hide somewhere.' said Odalon.

'If he thought, he will be spotted by the Empire, then it would be safer to leave the baby here, with Organa, who's the member of the Imperial Senate after all.' explained Ghoul.

'But if Master Kenobi is the father, that would mean, that the child is a Jedi.' said Odalon, and he almost fell off his seat of the surprise. 'If it's true, Kenobi shouldn't leave his daughter!'

'He could've done.' said Ghoul. 'When the baby will grow up, Organa will surely send her after Master Yoda, to learn the ways of the force. She will become a Jedi, and maybe she can defeat the Emperor.'

'Good.' nodded Odalon. 'Now, we know their plan.'

'Are you absolutely sure?' asked the bounty hunter.

'Why? It all sounded logical.' said Odalon.

'Yeah, but we could've been mistaken. You should read Organa's mind to know, if we're right.' said Ghoul.

'Impossible.' Odalon shook his head. 'Organa has stronger mind, than I can read or manipulate.'

'Then our last chance, to learn if we're right, is Obi-Wan Kenobi.' smiled Ghoul.

'How do you know where he is?' asked the Jedi.

'From the log of the Tantive IV. That ship left Polis Massa, while you were away, and returned again. I'm quiet sure, Kenobi left with that ship.' said Ghoul.

So they broke into the log of the Tantive IV, and downloaded the data, they were looking for. Then Ghoul went back to the sluice gate of the base, and waited for Odalon there. While he was waiting, he learned from the data, that the Tantive IV visited only one planet, before it returned to Polis Massa: Naboo.

'I have a couple of things to do.' said Odalon. 'I leave Polis Massa now, but I will be back in a few days.'

'Be really careful, Odalon!' said Organa, and he seemed to be worrying about the young Jedi.

'I will be.' nodded Odalon.

'And one more thing! Master Yoda left an hour ago.' said Organa.

'I bet, he didn't tell you, where he went.' smiled Odalon.

'No, he didn't.' Organa shook his head.

'Then, may the force be with you, Senator!' said Odalon, and he turned around, and went to the sluice gate.

Odalon and Ghoul left the secret base on the asteroid, and got into the Black Crow. The ship seemed to be ready for the flight, so the two pilots turned on it's engines, and left the asteroid behind. They didn't notice the two stowaways, who were in the technical room of the Black Crow.


	14. The truth

The Black Crow jumped to light-speed. C-3PO and R2-D2 both felt, that the ship was moving.

'What was that?' asked the golden droid.

The other robot replied with only a short whistle, but C-3PO understood it. R2 said, that the ship had left the asteroid, and jumped to light-speed.

'Oh no!' cried C-3PO. 'I can't stand space travelling.'

While in the cockpit, Ghoul heard the voice of the droids. He couldn't identify the noise, so he drew his blaster, and left the cockpit. Odalon followed him, holing his lightsaber in his hand. The Jedi just realised, that he hadn't changed the energy cell of his weapon to a proper one.

Ghoul stopped for a moment, and listened. He heard some beeping voice from the technical room, so he stepped to the door. He opened it, and pointed his blaster at the first person, he noticed. This person was actually a droid, C-3PO.

'Don't shoot!' shouted the droid raising his hands. 'I surrender.'

Ghoul lowered his blaster as he recognised the droid.

'Don't worry.' he groaned. 'Have you found that bug?'

'Not yet, sir.' reported C-3PO.

'Then continue with your task.' said the bounty hunter. 'And be careful! I don't want to see any errors, don't remove joints and that kinda things.'

'Sir, we are perfectly programmed droids, specialised on working with other machines.' said C-3PO huffily.

Ghoul closed the door of the technical room, and returned to the cockpit with Odalon.

'We must act fast, once we'll be on Naboo.' Ghoul said. 'The bug's still on the ship, so the Imperials can track us. Even if those droids manage to remove the bug before we arrive to Naboo, there's still a chance, that the Imperials can determine our destination.'

Odalon nodded.

'It takes hours to get to Naboo.' said Ghoul. 'We could sleep a bit.'

They slept. C-3PO woke them up, when the planet Naboo was closer than a half parsec. The droid reported, that R2-D2 had found the bug, and destroyed it.

'Good job.' groaned Ghoul. 'But I'm quiet sure, the Imperials know we were heading to Naboo.

He and Odalon went to the cockpit, and turned off the hyperdrive. They arrived to the planet Naboo. It was a small, green planet, mostly covered with forests and swamps. It's Capital was called Theed, and the Black Crow was heading to the space-port of this city.

Ghoul learned from the Tantive IV's log, that they had the dead body of Padme Amidala aboard the ship, when they visited Naboo, so he thought, that Senator Amidala was brought here for her funeral.

The Black Crow landed in one of the docking bays, and the two people left the ship. They told the droids to stay there, and wait until they return. They also gave a communicator to C-3PO, and ordered him to report, if they notice any Imperial ships on the radar near the planet.

'What can we do now?' asked Odalon.

'We must find out, where Kenobi did go from this planet.' replied Ghoul.

'How do you know he left Naboo?'

'Naboo was an important part of the Republic, so it's important in the Empire too. And the Senator of Naboo just died. I don't think, it's the best place to hide.' explained the bounty hunter.

'But maybe he can still be here.' said Odalon.

'Than where?' asked Ghoul.

'I remember, that Senator Amidala was the former Queen of Naboo. She must have had a royal funeral. And if Master Kenobi was here, he must have stayed for the funeral. He can be still at the palace.' said the Jedi.

'But how do you want to find him?' asked Ghoul. 'I don't think we'll be allowed to enter.'

'Maybe I can sense his presence with the force.' said Odalon.

'Be quiet!' whispered Ghoul.

They were walking on a crowded street. On the two sides of the street, there were countless shops, and clubs. Over their heads, speeders were flying from the space-port to the palace, or in the opposite direction.

The sun was low over the roofs, and the sky was changing from blue to reddish, and later into black, with the countless stars. Most of the people were heading to their homes. But Ghoul knew, there could have been some people there, who wanted to overhear them.

'It's not a good idea, to tell everyone, you're a Jedi. Even now-days.' whispered Ghoul.

'Hey!' shouted someone, and Odalon immediately raised his head, searching for the person, who yelled.

He found it. A human, in his fifty's was running towards them. He wore a torn hat, and a big, brown cloak, which seemed to be worn-out. He was unshaven, and he had a small, rat-like alien creature on his shoulder. It was a Kowakian monkey-lizard.

'You guys are looking for a ship, don't ya'?' asked the man.

'Not really. We're looking for...' Odalon started to reply, but Ghoul didn't let him finish the sentence.

'What ship can you offer?' Ghoul asked loudly, to stop Odalon from talking.

'Small ships for journeys, last few hours, between the planets of the sector.' said the man. 'I have hangars on thirteen planets, and six moons. You get into my ship, fly to one of these places, and leave it in my hangar.'

'How many costumers did you have recently?' asked Ghoul.

'Business doesn't go really well. I had only one this week.' said the man.

'How did he look like?' asked the Zygerrian. 'Just asking, because we're looking for a friend of us, and he left Naboo a few days ago.'

'He was about forty. He was circa five point eight, or nine feet high. He had brown hair, beard and sideburns.' said the man.

'It's him!' shouted Odalon. 'Where did he go?'

'Tatooine.' replied the man.

'Thanks!' nodded Odalon, and he left the man, and headed to the space-port immediately.

Ghoul gave five credits to the man, then followed Odalon. None of them noticed, that the man who was called Malvo, took his small communicator from his belt, and called the communications officer of the Star Destroyer Glorious, which was now flying towards Naboo on light-speed.

'It'd be less suspicious if we burrowed one of his ships.' said Ghoul.

'The Black Crow is faster, and I don't really trust the ships of this guy.' replied Odalon.

'Anyway, we must hurry.' groaned Ghoul. 'I have a bad feeling about this.'

They returned to the spaceship, and left Naboo as fast as they could. Odalon thought, they were very lucky, that they found the only man, who could help them. But Ghoul seemed to be worrying.

As they were heading to the planet Tatooine, suddenly a strange thought came to Odalon's mind. Maybe Ghoul could be a Jedi. It wasn't the first time, he thought that. Finally he decided to ask, and he hoped, that if Ghoul lies, he could catch a tell.

'Are you a Jedi?' he asked.

'No.' replied Ghoul, without raising his head.

'Do you have any connection with the force?' Odalon continued asking.

'No.' said Ghoul. 'I'm not force sensitive.'

'I think, you are.' said Odalon. 'I couldn't read your mind, you knew so much, and you conclude much better than anyone else but a Jedi.'

'I am not force sensitive.' said Ghoul again. 'But if you don't believe me, ask Kenobi, once we find him.'

The Black Crow slowly approached Tatooine, and headed to it's biggest space-port, Mos Eisley. As Odalon looked out through the window, he saw endless sand dunes. There was hardly any water on this planet, and moisture farmers were producing liquid to support the cities of Tatooine.

The planet was poor, and they mostly used local currency instead of the credits of the Empire. Tatooine was controlled by some Hutt lords, and the most powerful of them was Jabba, who built his own small empire here.

The Black Crow landed in the space-port, and the two droids were told to stay with the ship again. Odalon and Ghoul left the docking bay, and headed to the city, hoping to find someone, who could tell them, where is Obi-Wan Kenobi.

They asked the local speeder and Eopie traders. They learned, that in the past few days only eighteen people bought speeders or Eopies, most of them were non-human. Only one had the description, which suited to Obi-Wan Kenobi.

'He was here two days ago.' said the trader. 'He had a small backpack, brown robes, and he was carrying something. It seemed like a baby, but I'm not sure about that. He bought an Eopie, and left in that direction. I think, he went to the Jundland Wastes.'

'Thanks.' nodded Ghoul.

Odalon and Ghoul burrowed a sand speeder, and headed to the Jundland Wastes. It was one of the most infamous parts of Tatooine. Surrounded by the gigantic Dune Sea, the Jundland Wastes was about twenty thousand square miles of dangerous, rocky hills. It was hard to navigate through this place, not just because of the obscure rocks, but because of the Sandpeople, living there.

'I sense living creatures.' said Odalon. 'They're near. In that direction.'

The Jedi pointed at a rocky hill, which covered a valley. In the valley, there was a Tusken village. The Jedi and the bounty hunter didn't know that, and none of them had been to Tatooine before, but Ghoul thought, that Obi-Wan Kenobi must be alone, or only with the baby, not with a group of locals, so he didn't mind the creatures.

They continued their way, and saw a couple of Banthas. These creatures were probably looking for some food or drink, because they seemed slower, weaker and more underweight than normal. The sand speeder left them far behind, without slowing down.

Then, finally Odalon sensed another force sensitive mind, near them. Ghoul drove the speeder to a rocky hilltop, and brought out his binoculars. He noticed a small hut, about two and a half miles far, to the south-west.

They continued their way with the sand speeder. It took a few minutes to reach the house. It was a small, rectangle shaped hut, made out of synstone. It's front door was open, like the host was waiting for the guests.

'I think we should get inside.' suggested Odalon.

'Be careful!' said Ghoul, and he drew his blaster.

They stepped into the house, and found themselves in the living room. Obi-Wan Kenobi was already sitting there, next to the table, and looking at the two entering people.

'Welcome, Odalon!' Obi-Wan greeted the Jedi Padawan.

'Master Kenobi!' Odalon bowed.

Ghoul nodded to the Jedi master, and he put away his blaster.

'Why did you come here?' asked Kenobi.

'I'm here to learn the truth.' said Odalon.

'The truth about what?'

'About you, about your daughter, about your secret plan with Organa, and about the Sith and the Empire.' said Odalon vehemently.

'What did you say?' asked Obi-Wan. 'My daughter?'

'The baby, who was adopted by Organa.' said Odalon.

'She's not my daughter.' Obi-Wan shook his head.

'And the other one?' asked Ghoul suddenly. 'The child, you brought here with you?'

'He is the twin brother of the girl, you saw with Organa.' replied Obi-Wan. 'They're the children of Anakin Skywalker.'

As Obi-Wan said the name, he turned his head away from the guests, and looked at the wall for a few long seconds.

'Where is he now?' asked Ghoul. 'I mean, the child.'

'With Anakin's half-brother, Owen Lars.' said Obi-Wan. 'Owen promised me, he will raise Luke, and keep him safe.'

'And when the children will be grown up, they'll be sent to master Yoda, to become Jedi?' asked Ghoul. 'Is this your plan to stop the Emperor?'

'It is.' nodded Obi-Wan. 'And I ask you to keep it in secret. The Emperor and Vader must not discover, that these children exist.

'But why don't you go, and fight the Emperor?' cried Odalon.

'We have tried to destroy him with master Yoda, but he was too strong. I can feel, you want to kill him too, but you must understand, that you have no chance against Darth Sidious.' explained the Jedi master.

'And those children have?' asked Odalon.

'If you meditate on this long enough, you will realise, that this is the only chance.' replied Obi-Wan.

Odalon looked at the Jedi master angrily, but he didn't continue arguing. Another strange thought came to his mind.

'I had a vision.' he said. 'A vision of a young Jedi, who turned to the dark side.'

'And you are afraid of being this Jedi?' asked Obi-Wan.

Odalon nodded.

'I can sense fear in you. Fear, anger, and you wish to take revenge on the Emperor.' said the Jedi master.

'I'm afraid of the dark side.' said Odalon. 'I can't turn! It can't be!'

'You won't.' said Obi-Wan. 'Your vision was about another Jedi, who really turned to the dark side. It was about my apprentice.'

'What?' asked Odalon surprised.

'Anakin Skywalker has turned to the dark side of the force, and became Darth Vader.' said Obi-Wan, and a drop of tear sparkled in the corner of his eye. 'Darth Vader is the new Sith apprentice of the Empreor. He slaughtered the Jedi, and he killed Anakin's wife, Padme. I had to face him, and I defeated him, but he survived. The Emperor saved him, and now he's more machine, than human. He's twisted and evil.'

'I saw him in the Jedi Temple.' said Odalon. 'I duelled with him, and he killed Ci Moss. It was him.'

'Anakin is the father of the twins.' said the Jedi master. 'And Vader can't learn, that these children exist! You must keep it in secret, or we will fail!'

'We will keep your secret.' said Odalon, and he turned to the door. He had no other questions, and he understood, that sooner they leave the planet, is the better for Obi-Wan.

'May the force be with you!' said the Jedi master, and the two guests left the hut.

As Odalon stepped out of Kenobi's house, he suddenly couldn't sense Obi-Wan's presence. The Jedi master covered his mind with the force, and he didn't let any other force sensitive creature to sense him.

Odalon and Ghoul returned to the speeder, and started it's engine. They flew back towards Mos Eisley, through the Jundland Wastes.

'Anakin Skywalker.' whispered Odalon. 'So the prophecy failed.'

'What are you planning to do now?' asked Ghoul.

'I'm afraid, I have no choice.' said Odalon. 'I must keep in secret, what I've learned.'

'So you follow Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi to an exile?' asked Ghoul.

Odalon nodded.

'You should join Organa's secret group.' suggested the Zygerrian.

'That's not safe enough.' Odalon shook his head. 'They will fight against the Empire, once they're ready. And in a war, I can easily fall into the enemy's hands, with all of my information.'

Ghoul smiled, and he accelerated, as they left the last rocks of the Jundland Wastes. Mos Eisley soon became visible on the horizon. The sand speeder was flying with maximum speed over the sand dune of Tatooine.

They reached the city, and headed towards the space-port. The fastest way to the space-port was leading through the main street of Mos Eisley, and through the biggest square, where most of the shops were located. On the square, there were a few big vaporizer machines, to keep the air of the city a bit moister than the other places of the planet.

But this time, the square was almost empty. Odalon and Ghoul arrived there, with the sand speeder, but just as they slowed down, they realised, that they walked into a trap. Stormtroopers stepped out of every doors, and they encircled the Jedi and the bounty hunter. The Imperial troopers were pointing their blasters at them, but they didn't shoot. They were waiting for orders. Orders from the person, who was standing in the middle of the square, in his black armour, with an active lightsaber in his hand. The evil Sith knight, Darth Vader.


	15. Jedi Padawan

Odalon stepped out of the speeder, and stood in front of Darth Vader. He was afraid of the Sith knight, not just because Vader was much stronger than him, but because he shouldn't let Obi-Wan's secret fall into the dark lord's hands.

While Odalon stood before Vader, the stormtroopers forced Ghoul out of the speeder, and unarmed him. Two troopers were pointing their blasters at Ghoul, so he had no chance to run.

'Now, Jedi, before you die, you will tell me, why did you come to this planet.' said Vader with his deep, mechanical voice.

'I don't tell you anything!' resisted Odalon. He expected, that Vader will try to reach his mind with the force, so he tried to prepare himself to seal his thoughts.

'You can't resist me, young fool!' groaned Vader.

'You called me young? I'm just two years younger than you, Anakin Skywalker.' replied Odalon.

The Jedi could sense Vader's suddenly growing anger. The Sith raised his mechanical hand, pointed at Odalon, and pushed him away with the force. Odalon crashed into a vaporizer, and fell to the sand. The stormtroopers and Ghoul were standing on the other side of the machine, and they were watching the scene.

'It's Lord Vader!' said the Sith knight severely, as he walked to Odalon.

Suddenly a dangerous idea came to the Jedi's mind. He drew his lightsaber, but instead of attacking Vader, he cut the vaporizer machine into two pieces. Vader prepared to defend himself from the falling machine, but it leant to the other direction.

The stormtroopers jumped out of the vaporizer's way, which hit the ground heavily. Just as the vaporizer caused so much confusion between the troopers, Ghoul reached for the blaster of the nearest soldier. He immediately shot the trooper, and two others, before the Imperials could react.

'Run!' shouted Odalon.

Ghoul jumped behind the closest house, and disappeared from the Jedi's sight. The stormtroopers didn't have time to shoot him.

'Kill him!' ordered Darth Vader.

Most of the stormtroopers started to chase the bounty hunter on Mos Eisley's narrow streets. Ghoul took as many turns as he could, because he didn't want to give any chance to the Imperials to shoot him.

As he was running on a wider street, in the direction of the space-port, he suddenly realised, that few troopers get in front of him by using a shorter way.

Ghoul jumped through an opened door to evade the stormtroopers' laser bolts. Inside the house, he saw a local creature, who seemed very surprised to see someone jumping through his door, holding a blaster.

'Who...?' the local tried to shout, but he couldn't finish his question.

Ghoul didn't care about him. He just headed upstairs, and climbed out to the roof. Some stormtroopers followed him, but they weren't fast enough to catch him. Others were shooting from the street, but they could target Ghoul only when he was at the edge of the roof.

The bounty hunter saw the first trooper climbing out through the window. He shot the trooper, who died immediately. Then Ghoul turned to the direction of the space-port, and jumped to the roof of the closest house.

He almost fell from the roof, but he managed to catch some kind of rope, which was hanging from the house. He pulled himself up to the roof, and got behind some kind of chimney, to cover himself from the stormtroopers' shots.

The house, on which he was hiding, was attached to a higher one. Maybe he could climb up to the higher roof, to get some advantage.

Ghoul jumped out of his shelter, and blasted a stormtrooper on the other roof, where he came from. Then he jumped as high as he could, and reached the edge of the roof. He pulled himself up to the roof, but some laser bolts almost hit him, while he was hanging on the wall.

He had a look at the place, where he was standing. There was some kind of rope, or wire, which started from here, and ended on the top of another house, which was lower than this one. That house was much closer to the space-port, and the wire gave an idea to Ghoul.

The bounty hunter looked down, to see, where the troopers were, and he saw, that they were coming towards him. Two stormtroopers already jumped to the roof, beneath the one, he was standing on.

Ghoul turned around and stepped to the wire. He put his blaster over the wire, and gripped it with both of his hands. The wire was between his two arms, and under the blaster. Then he raised his feet from the roof, and slid down on the wire to the other housetop.

Some laser blasts flew towards him, but the stormtroopers missed the target. Ghoul ran to the edge of the house, and jumped down onto a big crate.

'What are you doing man! That's mine!' shouted a big alien, who was sitting next to the crate.

Ghoul didn't answer. He jumped down onto the sand, and ran to the space-port. The stormtroopers chased him, but there was a great distance between the bounty hunter and the Imperials.

Ghoul reached the space-port, and headed straight to the docking bay, where the Black Crow was waiting with the two droids. He ran through the door, leading into the docking bay, then he turned around, closed it, and shot the control panel. The door was now useless, and it couldn't be opened easily.

Ghoul ran to the ship, which was standing in the middle of the circle-shaped docking bay. Some crates were there too, next to the ship. These crates contained spaceship parts, and the most useful things, to repair a lightly-damaged ship. But there was someone else in the docking bay, who was just about to open the ramp of the Black Crow.

As the Zygerrian stepped into the docking bay, Malvo raised his head, and turned to the arriving person. The Kowakian monkey-lizard was sitting on his shoulder.

'You slimy traitor!' groaned Ghoul.

'The Imperials promised me, I can keep your ship. I didn't think, you'd survive.' said Malvo.

'I survived, but you won't.' replied Ghoul, and he raised his blaster.

In the same time, Malvo raised his hands, and covered his head with his arms. Ghoul's laser blast hit the arm of the man, but it didn't hurt him. Malvo was wearing some kind of armour on his hands, which could resist the laser bolts.

Ghoul saw, that a small blaster immediately slipped out of Malvo's robes. The bounty hunter barely had time to jump aside, behind a big crate. The laser blast, which Malvo shot, hit Ghoul's cape, and made a big, smoking hole on it.

'Catch him, Thief!' whispered Malvo, and put the monkey-lizard on the ground. Thief immediately ran towards the crate, where Ghoul was hiding.

'C-3PO! Shoot that man in the docking bay!' said Ghoul into his communicator. He didn't get any answer, but he hoped, that the droid got his message.

Then suddenly he felt huge pain in his right hand. The Kowakian monkey-lizard bit his hand, and the blaster slipped out of his fingers.

Ghoul yelled in pain, and he fell to the ground. Thief didn't release his hand, but picked his teeth deeper into the bounty-hunter's hand.

As Ghoul tried to shake the monkey-lizard off, he suddenly realised, he fell out of his shelter. He was now open target for Malvo, and he knew, that his enemy won't miss the target. Then Ghoul heard the sound of the blaster, and he expected, he will be dead in the next moment.

But he was still alive. He felt, that his hand was released by the monkey-lizard too, and as he looked down to the sand, he saw the dead, smoking body of Thief. Malvo's shot accidentally hit the creature instead of Ghoul.

'No!' shouted Malvo, and he raised his blaster for another attempt.

Then the guns of the Black Crow shot two quick laser bolts at him, and both hit the target. Malvo fell to the ground and died immediately.

'Nice shot, C-3PO.' said Ghoul into the communicator. This time he heard the droid replying:

'Thak you, sir, but actually I have to inform you, that it wasn't me, who targeted the...'

'Never mind!' Ghoul cut in, because he had to hurry. The stormtroopers could break into the docking bay in any second. 'Open the ramp!'

C-3PO opened the ramp of the Black Crow, and Ghoul immediately ran to the cockpit.

'Why didn't you warn me about the Imperials?' asked Ghoul with a bit of anger in his voice.

'I beg your pardon, sir, but someone must have jammed our transmissions.' replied the droid.

'Damn! These Imperials are smarter than I thought.' groaned Ghoul.

'Sir, should I deactivate the guns of the ship?' asked C-3PO.

'No.' Ghoul shook his head, while he turned on the engines. 'We're going back for Odalon.'

.

The Jedi stood up as fast as he could, and he deflected Vader's first attack. The Sith knight have learned how to control his mechanical arms, and now he fought better than the last time. He still had more powerful strikes than the normal people, and Odalon had to use the force, if he wanted to deflect Vader's strikes.

The Jedi tried to move faster, to get out of the Sith's way, who was still slower. Odalon could evade Vader's strikes, but he felt, he was getting tired with every step. He hoped, that his enemy feels the same, but he knew, that Anakin Skywalker was once one of the greatest duellists in the galaxy, so he had only a very small chance to win this duel.

Vader almost reached him a few times during the last seconds. Odalon knew, he will lose very soon, if the fight continues this way. He had to come up with an idea to win this battle. But even if he would defeat Vader, there were still many stormtroopers on the square. They could easily kill him with a few shots.

There was no hope.

Vader stroke at the Jedi's lightsaber more powerful than before, and Odalon lost his weapon. The saber automatically deactivated as it fell to the dust four meters away.

Darth Vader raised his left hand, and hit Odalon. The Jedi fell to the sand, and he couldn't get his weapon back. Vader stepped beside him, and pointed his lightsaber at Odalon's throat.

'And now you will tell me, why did you come here.' said Vader severely.

'I don't tell you anything!' replied Odalon.

'Whether you tell me, or not, I will find out.' said Vader, and he deactivated his lightsaber.

Odalon knew, what's coming. He felt Vader's mind in his own head. He concentrated to hide his thoughts. His mind fought Vader's, and for a few seconds, he thought, that he can defend his thoughts. Vader's mind was getting out of Odalon's.

But then the Sith attacked again, with much more power, than before. Odalon could hardly keep up fighting. He lost his balance and fell to the sand. He lay there, under Darth Vader, but he still didn't give up fighting with his mind, however he was losing concentration.

Both of the suns slowly disappeared behind Vader, and Odalon could now see only the dark lord, standing there, like a giant, immortal statue. He heard nothing, but the mechanical voice of Vader's breathing, and his mind slowly lost it's power. Odalon knew, that his last defences will be crashed in a few seconds.

He can't lose! Vader must not find out the truth about Obi-Wan, about Yoda, and about the children! He can't let this happen! He must find a way to save all his information!

The lightsaber!

Odalon knew, that his lightsaber was still laying on the dust, a few meters away. If he could reach the weapon somehow, maybe he could continue fighting physically. But he also knew, he couldn't win. He was out of his power, and he couldn't even deflect another lightsaber strike of the Sith lord. The only way left, was suicide.

But Odalon couldn't get the lightsaber. He had to concentrate all of his powers on defending his mind, so he couldn't use the force to reach the weapon. He couldn't do anything! Everything was lost!

Only one, or two seconds were left, before Vader could break through Odalon's last defences, when the Jedi thought about one last idea. There was no other chance.

Odalon tried to fool Vader, by showing him fake thoughts. He let some thoughts out of his defence, to make Vader think, he crushed his mind. He felt Vader's satisfaction, but he knew, if the Sith keeps up reading his mind any longer, he will fail, and the real thoughts will be discovered too.

But Vader suddenly released him, and Odalon saw the very bright spots on the sky. Vader stepped away from him, but he didn't know why. Odalon tried to gather his remaining power, and drew his lightsaber towards himself. The weapon got into his hand, and Odalon turned it on.

The bright laser burst out of the grip, and got through Odalon's chest. The Jedi's hand released the weapon, and the last thing, he saw, was a giant metal object, which lowered from the sky with bright lightning phenomenons.

.

The Black Crow shot laser bolts at the stormtroopers, standing on the square. All of the Imperial soldiers immediately got into shelter, and Ghoul could lower the ship in the middle.

Darth Vader was also attacked by the ship, but he could deflect the laser blasts with his lightsaber. He moved backwards, and found cover behind a vaporizer.

Now he knew the truth. He managed to break into the Jedi's mind, and he saw, why they came to Tatooine. But he wasn't so satisfied with the information he got. The Jedi came here for nothing. Odalon had been fooled, and lured to Tatooine by someone, but he found nothing here. At least, Vader thought that.

The Black Crow landed next to Odalon's body. The ramp opened, and Ghoul stepped out of the ship. He shot a few laser blasts at various directions without targeting. He just wanted to threaten the stormtroopers to make them stay behind cover until he was standing out of the ship. Then he lifted Odalon, and brought him back to the Crow.

Some Imperial troopers tried to shoot the bounty hunter, but they didn't have time for precise shots, because the small guns of the ship were shooting at them.

'Get us outta here!' shouted Ghoul, when he got into the ship. He closed the ramp, and he took Odalon to the bedroom, and lay him on a bed. Then the Zygerrian brought there the first aid kit of the ship, and tried to attend the Jedi.

Odalon's eyes shook, and he tried to say some words. He felt Ghoul's presence, and wished to tell him, what happened. Finally he could only say:

'Obi-Wan... is... safe...'

'Hold on, Odalon!' said Ghoul, but it seemed, that Odalon can't hear his words. Finally the bounty hunter said: 'Now, you deserve to be called Padawan.'

The bounty hunter attended the Jedi, as he could. The injury on Odalon's chest was serious, however it didn't cause damage to his heart, but his lungs were stabbed, and Ghoul didn't have much experience in healing. While he was trying to save Odalon's life, the two droids piloted the Black Crow out of Tatooine's atmosphere.

R2-D2, who handled the co-pilot's computer, started to whistle. C-3PO, who was driving the ship understood him perfectly.

'Are you absolutely sure about that?' he asked from his companion.

R2-D2 whistled again. He was talking about the Star Destroyer, which was getting closer to the Black Crow.

'Oh no! We are doomed! What can I do to evade a battleship! I'm programmed to be a protocol droid, not a pilot.' cried C-3PO.

R2-D2 gave a beeping voice, and he set some things on his computer. Now the Black Crow's hyperdrive was charging, and the coordinates of Polis Massa was set as the destination of the hyperspace jump.

'I am not able to manoeuvre this kind of spacecraft.' said C-3PO. 'The chance of surviving the attack of an Imperial battle cruiser, is one to three-hundred and seventy.'

R2-D2 suddenly changed the ship's controls to automatic pilot. He prepared to activate the automatic evasive manoeuvres of the ship.

'What have you done? I can't drive the ship. You turned off the controls!' cried C-3PO.

R2-D2 explained his plan with some short whistles. C-3PO was about to point out the dangers of the small astro-droid's plan, but finally he decided to be quiet.

The Star Destroyer started to shoot at the Black Crow. R2-D2 activated the evasive manoeuvres, but he was late. The ship's deflector shields heavily damaged, but most of the battleship's laser bolts missed the Black Crow.

'We are doomed!' repeated C-3PO again and again, until the Black Crow's hyperdrive was charged, and the ship made the hyperspace jump, leaving the Star Destroyer, called Glorious, behind.

'Good job.' said Ghoul, when he returned to the cockpit.

'Thank you sir.' bowed C-3PO. R2-D2 whistled too.

Ghoul sat into the co-pilot's seat, and set all power on the hyperdrive. He wanted to get to Polis Massa faster than ever.

When the Black Crow broke out of hyperspace, Odalon was still alive, but in really bad condition. Only Ghoul's machine kept his lungs in one peace. Ghoul immediately called the control tower of Polis Massa, however, the radar didn't indicate the base, because it's cloaking device was active.

'I need a medical unit at once! I have a seriously injured person aboard!' he said.

The medical ship almost immediately took off, and headed to the Black Crow. The two spaceships attached over the giant asteroid. The medical ship's door attached to the ramp of the Black Crow, and Ghoul opened the ramp with a special switch. There was a smaller door in the middle of the ramp, which could be opened like a simple door, not like the ramp. This way the crew of the medical ship could get on the board of the Black Crow, without getting out into the space.

Two doctors got through the door, and they headed to Odalon. They lifted the Jedi, and brought him back to the medical ship. Then the two spacecrafts detached, and the medical unit headed to the hospital wing of the Polis Massa base.

Ghoul hoped, they arrived in time to save Odalon's life. He piloted the Black Crow to the surface of the planet, got into his spacesuit, and went to the sluice gate, accompanied by the two droids.

In the base, Ghoul pulled off the spacesuit, and headed to the hospital wing. On a corridor he met Senator Organa, who was also heading to the hospital.

'What happened?' asked the Senator.

'That's a long story.' replied Ghoul. 'I'll tell you later.'

They arrived to the hospital, and a droid, which was similar to C-3PO told them, where Odalon was brought by the medics.

'I'm waiting here.' said Ghoul, and he sat on a chair, next to the wall, while Organa headed to the room, where the doctors were trying to save Odalon's life. Ghoul was sitting there for a long time, waiting for Organa.

Finally the Senator returned to the corridor. He seemed to be tired, more mentally, than physically. Ghoul stood up, and the Senator stepped in front of him. Organa looked at the bounty hunter for a few long seconds, then he said:

'He's gonna be alright.'


End file.
